Written and recorded after the death of
Meric Long and
Logan Kroeber's friend and touring guitarist Chris Reimer,
Dodos' Carrier is neither funereal nor a celebratory wake, but a little bit of both. It begins with
Long wondering on "Transformer," "What is a song? What is love?" as he reflects on the impact people have on each other. Later, on "Substance," it's equally jubilant and poignant when he sings "You will forget/And I will remember." Understandably, Carrier is more subdued than their previous album, the bold, counterintuitively named
No Color, and the band downplays
Kroeber's dramatic percussion on most of these songs. However,
Long's singing and guitars are as sweet and chiming as ever, particularly on delicate tracks like "The Current," the aching "Holidays," and the mournful album closer, "The Ocean." Over the course of Carrier, the band slowly introduces livelier moments such as "Confidence," which aptly enough boasts a self-assured swagger reminiscent of
No Color, and "Stranger," which contrasts
Kroeber's galloping rhythms with
Long's bittersweet melody in a quintessentially
Dodos way. With the inclusion of songs like "Relief" -- which lives up to its name when its big chorus kicks in -- and the ironically rousing "Destroyer," Carrier ends up being a remarkably balanced meditation on joy and loss, as well as one of the more nuanced albums in
Dodos' body of work. ~ Heather Phares