On Converse Daggers, devotion is a harmful pressure, likened to bolts, bricks, and razor blades. “I really like you/I damage you even higher,” Rønnenfelt sings on “Mona Lisa,” the file’s most devastating and danceable observe. It opens with a blitz of gunshots; sharply bowed violins reduce by its refrain as Rønnenfelt raps about traditional art work falling into disrepair as a metaphor for descent into habit. “Crush the Devils Head” is one other sluggish spiral into the inferno, the place the delusion that one is proof against evil is as seductive as evil itself. “Crush the satan’s head/Lord is aware of he’s made a satan out of you,” Rønnenfelt slurs. A syrupy drum beat underscores all of it, sometimes sputtering out or jerking awake. “Love How It Feels” inches towards conclusions (“This era’s not free”), however winds up too imprecise to really feel full. “USA Child” is the stronger single; Rønnenfelt has stated it’s sung from the angle of a non-American watching their American associate endure underneath the nation’s regressive insurance policies. The clank of chains within the foreground feels apt for an apocalyptic love track concerning the demise rattle of an empire.
The sexually and spiritually charged post-punk that characterised Rønnenfelt’s work with Iceage has taken a slower, moodier flip in his solo materials. Chugging rhythm sections that when catapulted him by motormouthed choruses now snag and stretch, usually punctuated by high-pitched “ooh-oohhhh” ad-libs. Whereas his vocal supply on Converse Daggers skews extra Lil Peep than Nick Cave, his songwriting stays involved with violence, corruption, and holy turmoil. “If it is a jail, then the world is one,” he declares on “World Jail,” the track that the majority resembles Iceage’s ragged punk poetry, now painstakingly stretched throughout Converse Daggers as Rønnenfelt carves out a distinct segment within the grey house between people, post-punk, and cloud rap. He’s Denmark’s resident bard of disaffection, however there aren’t any winners right here. Every demise is a mercy killing, every victory pyrrhic.
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