''Machine Dreams'' is the second studio album by Swedish

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

band

Little Dragon Little Dragon are a Swedish electronic music band from Gothenburg, Sweden, formed in 1996. The band consists of Yukimi Nagano (vocals, percussion), Erik Bodin (drums), Fredrik Wallin (bass) and Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards). Little Dragon's ...

. It was released on 17 August 2009 by

Peacefrog Records Peacefrog Records is a British independent record label based in London, England. The label produces releases in many different styles of electronic music, as well as branching out into folk and indie artists such as José González, Nouvelle ...

Composition

In making ''Machine Dreams'', Little Dragon focused more on making uptempo dance tracks suited for live performances than on ballads like they did on their self-titled debut album. Vocalist

Yukimi Nagano Yukimi Eleanora Nagano (born 31 January 1982) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She is the vocalist for the Swedish electronic group Little Dragon. Career Early career Nagano first made a record at the age of 18 with Andreas Saag (Swell Sessi ...

described the sound and style of ''Machine Dreams'' as more "anonymous",

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

and pop-infused than the "naked" sound of their debut. The album's title refers to its instrumentation and sound palette, which is a combination of organic and analog sounds with digitally-produced sonic textures, "machines that sound human with humans playing machine-like parts" in the words of journalist Tim Chester.

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

reviewer Andy Kellman described the LP's instrumentation as consisting of "rubbery rhythms and liquid synthesizer patterns", while Patric Fallon of ''

XLR8R ''XLR8R'' (pronounced "accelerator") is a website that covers music, culture, style, and technology. It was originally also a print magazine. History and profile ''XLR8R'' was founded as a newsprint zine in 1993 by publisher Andrew Smith in Sea ...

'' compared it to the works of

Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

, The Knife and

Tom Tom Club Tom Tom Club is an American new wave band founded in 1981 by husband-and-wife team Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth and as a side project from Talking Heads. Their best known songs include "Wordy Rappinghood", "Genius of Love", and a cover of T ...

Cover art

Japanese artist Hideyuki Katsumata, whom the group met via Myspace, was responsible for making the cover art of ''Machine Dreams''. Nagano explained, "We had a mutual respect for each other's work and we found that his expression really added something to our sound. We love him!"

Critical reception

''Machine Dreams'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 74, based on 10 reviews. Tim Chester of ''

Wondering Sound eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. In exchange for a monthly subscription eMusic users can download a fixed number of MP3 tracks per month. eMusic was established in 1998, is headquartered in New York Cit ...

'' viewed it as a "more refined version" of Little Dragon's debut album. Andy Kellman of

praised the album as an " lectricquiet storm, deceptively intense and even sensual." In a less enthusiastic review, ''

Loud and Quiet ''Loud and Quiet'' is a British bi-monthly music magazine that focuses on new music from underground indie, alternative, electronic and hip hop artists. History and profile The magazine was founded in January 2005 by Stuart Stubbs as a home-print ...

'' critic Tom Goodwyn described ''Machines Dream'' as "slick, efficient pop music", writing that "each song flows beautifully into the next, driven by an equally infectious keyboard groove and comes in a perfect pop song length." However, he also criticized the record for not taking any chances, labeling the lyrical content as "throwaway" and overall calling the album "cold, vacuum packed and devoid of heart and soul."

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Machine Dreams''. *

– production, mixing * Guy Davie – mastering * Dimman – backing vocals * Hideyuki Katsumata – illustration * Harry Lindgård – mixing * Petter Lindgård – mixing * SEEK – photography * La Skrocka –

timbales Timbales () or pailas are shallow single-headed drums with metal casing. They are shallower than single-headed tom-toms and usually tuned much higher, especially for their size.Orovio, Helio 1981. ''Diccionario de la música cubana: biográfico ...

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2009 albums Little Dragon albums Peacefrog Records albums New wave albums by Swedish artists