''Swim'' is the fifth studio album by Canadian musician

Dan Snaith Daniel Victor Snaith (born March 29, 1978) is a Canadian composer, musician, and recording artist who has performed under the stage names Caribou, Manitoba, and Daphni. Career Snaith originally recorded under the stage name Manitoba, but afte ...

, released under the moniker Caribou on April 20, 2010 by City Slang and

Merge Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the com ...

. It is his third album credited under Caribou and deviated from the

psychedelic pop Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the late 1960s, elements included "trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, ...

of his recent work and toward

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded danc ...

. ''Swim'' continued the critical success set by Snaith and was critically acclaimed upon its release, later making several publications' year-end best album lists. It was recognized as one of "The 100 Best Albums of the Decade So Far" by ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' in August 2014. ''Swim Remixes'', a compilation of remixes from the album, was released in 2010 by

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expanded ...

and features remixes by artists such as

Junior Boys Junior Boys are a Canadian electronic pop group, founded in 1999 in Hamilton, Ontario by Jeremy Greenspan and Johnny Dark. Dark left the project shortly after, and was replaced by engineer Matt Didemus. The duo initially gained critical prais ...

, Fuck Buttons, and

Nite Jewel Ramona Gonzalez (known professionally as Nite Jewel) is an American singer-songwriter from Los Angeles, California. Biography Ramona Gonzalez began as Nite Jewel in 2008 as the result of her juggling music with undergraduate studies.

Background

''Swim'' was, according to Snaith, "pretty much me getting up every day and wanting to work on music. Working constantly on it. Making loads and loads and loads of music and then just sifting through to find the bits that I like". Playing more DJ gigs, such as those at London's Plastic People, influenced the musician to embrace dance music and a greater range of frequencies in his music, which led to the formulation of ''Swim''. Nevertheless, about 700 songs, some unfinished, did not make it onto the album. "Jamelia" features vocals by Luke Lalonde of

Born Ruffians Born Ruffians are a Canadian indie rock band based in Toronto. Officially founded in 2004 in the Georgian Bay town of Midland, Ontario, the band is composed of frontman Luke Lalonde, bassist Mitch DeRosier, and drummer Steve Hamelin. During the ...

Reception

''Swim'' received acclaim from critics, being assigned a Metascore of 83 by

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. It was a shortlisted nominee for the

2010 Polaris Music Prize The 2010 edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize was presented on September 20, 2010. and was named the Best Album of 2010 by ''

Resident Advisor ''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. It was established in 2001. ''RA''s editorial team provides news, musi ...

''. The album also won the Juno Award in 2010 for Best Electronic Album of the Year and was awarded the second spot in ''

Exclaim! ''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...

s 2010 Electronic Year in Review. Daniel Sylvester of ''Exclaim!'' praised the organic nature of the album, claiming "Caribou will be remembered for Swim." As of 2011, it has sold 33,803 copies in US. As of 2015 it has sold 175,000 copies worldwide according to

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda ...

. Publications ranking ''Swim'' on their end-of-year lists included: *1st

*1st Urban75 *1st

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and Nightclub, clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' ...

*4th

musicOMH MusicOMH (stylized as musicOMH) is a London-based online music magazine which publishes independent reviews, features and interviews from across all genres including classical, metal, rock and R&B. History MusicOMH was founded and launched by ...

*6th

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

*17th

*19th

Drowned In Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History '' ...

*39th Spin *58th NME The first track on the album, "Odessa", was featured in a commercial for the automobile manufacturer Acura, the football video game by

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

, '' FIFA 11'', as well as in a 2011 Lexus CT 200h commercial, and a 2012

Tissot Tissot SA () is a Swiss watchmaker. The company was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son, Charles-Émile Tissot, in 1853. After several mergers and name changes, the group which Tissot SA belonged to was rename ...

commercial for watches.

Track listing

Charts

References

External links

''Swim''
at official Caribou website * {{Authority control 2010 albums Dan Snaith albums City Slang albums Merge Records albums Juno Award for Electronic Album of the Year albums