July kind of sucked in Vancouver- weather wise. It was cloudy, cold, it goddamn rained. But right towards the end of the month, things turned around. As if Mother Nature in all her venomous and contemptuous wrath decided to show some mercy. At right around the same time, Ritual Union, the third LP from Little Dragon dropped; to those familiar with Little Dragon headed up by Yukimi Nagano, they would agree that the timing could not have been more perfect. Little Dragon's mysterious, quirky, delightful, and uplifting brand of electro pop goes perfectly with my favourite season once it's in full effect. When I listened to Ritual Union for the first time, it was obvious that I liked it, but I wasn't sure if it was better than their previous album, the excellent Machine Dreams. If I was going to answer this question I needed to understand in what ways it was different, and if those differences yielded a better or worse album.
Upon initial inspection, Nagano's voice is immediately familiar to those who spent any time with their previous album, Machine Dreams. Instantly alluring, silky smooth, and paced elegantly and logically with the music it accompanies, listening to Nagano throughout Ritual Union reaffirms my belief that she is one of the premier vocal talents out there right now. My first few plays of the album had me more or less convinced that Ritual Union, at least in terms of Nagano's vocal contribution, was a logical and sensible continuation of the ground explored in Machine Dreams. While that is certainly satisfactory to some degree, there is something slightly disappointing about a group like Little Dragon, who I found so vibrantly unique at first, to stumble tragically into redundancy and repetitiveness. I wanted to give Nagano more credit, so I forced Ritual Union through a much more rigorous and borderline anal analytical wringer; I'm pleased I did, for I believe the findings to be most positive. It took repeated listenings, but I'm now certain there are some pretty key differences between how she sang on this album versus the last.
In Machine Dreams her voice, while still very pleasing to the senses carries a sort of aloof detachment to the music in many parts. As if she was unaffected by all the aural chaos that Little Dragon is known for, her voice seemed to hover almost aristocratically above it all on some sort of demure and regal plane of expression. I don't necessarily offer this point with infallibility, I am open to disagreement, but between songs like “A New”, “Feather”, and “Never Never”, I think there is enough evidence to back this up. To contrast, in Ritual Union she is very much affected by the tone and character of the music, and her voice is much more directly in tune with it as a result. Her voice is caught up with the immediacy, intensity, and unpredictability of the music, and her emotions rise to the surface much more, with her barely in control of them, again mimicking and reflecting the chaos of the music itself. I hear examples of this as she becomes more melodramatic in “Ritual Union”, grows increasingly hyper active in “Shuffle a Dream” and pleads to the listener in “Please Turn”. She never used to do that, certainly not to the degree I notice here. I am pleased to hear Nagano try to expand and evolve, but I cannot say with any kind of authority which style is better. While I enjoy her more emotive exploits here, I quite liked the aforementioned aloofness from Machine Dreams- it gave her a sort of mystique. I suppose it boils down to preferences or mood when choosing which one appeals to you more.
It took considerably less effort to notice and understand the ways in which the Little Dragon sound has evolved. Evolved is perhaps to strong a word as it might imply more progressive changes, whereas Ritual Union represents perhaps more of a lateral movement in the Little Dragon dynamic. It's not necessarily better than Machine Dreams, it's just different. Little Dragon has proven time and time again that they have a nearly limitless reservoir of energy and ideas to apply to the production process. In Machine dreams, those commodities were used to create a very playful and spirited record. With Ritual Union that energy seems to be manifested in slightly darker and more mature tones. This is not to say it's a dreary or macabre affair- I'm not even sure that's possible considering who we're talking about here. Ritual Union is a more dramatic and urgent offering, dealing with slightly heavier themes; ideas that Nagano desperately seeks to communicate rather than sing just for the thrill of it, relating back to here more emotional flavor this time around. “Ritual Union” is probably the lightest track of the bunch, and even then you can hear the slight modesty in the music mixing with the tense strain of Nagano's voice. It's a delightfully endearing track that is paced perfectly and has a beautiful, if brief synth/horn solo. Other highlights include the sly and seductive “Little Man”, and the chest thumping synth laden beat “Shuffle a Dream”. “Nightlight” is not only a great track but a perfect example of that darker energy but still manages a to maintain a bright neon shell. These tracks and several others have great hooks, and are endlessly catchy. Other tracks, like “When I Go Out” and “Seconds” are frustratingly devoid of any such structure, pacing, or hooks, and wind up being boring slogs. I think that Little Dragon wants to expand their aspirations and become more than just a pop band, like some epically ambient force. I don't know if they're ready, if they know how to move past sugar high pop rhythms. I certainly don't want them to, I can appreciate experimental evolutions to their sound, but not drastic, ill-conceived, and unfinished redesigns as those two tracks perilously hint at.
Speaking of incremental shifts, they seem to have also tweaked the balance between the various aspects of their instruments and arrangements. Both Machine Dreams and Ritual Union are peppered with unpredictable surprises in the shapes of odd distortions, oblong sounds that pop up and disappear, and blunt beats that sort of just crash the party of the main rhythm. In their last album, the musical oddities came mostly from percussion- drums and the like. This time, its synthesizers and key boards that tend to make up the bulk of these insurgent sounds. At times they make already interesting and pleasing music more robust and creative, but at others than can be a little distracting and jarring; occasionally it is uncalled for or laid on a little thick. Little Dragon makes smooth and catchy beats; they should have more faith in them rather than feeling the need to dress it up and saturate it with unwarranted bells and whistles- literally.
I feel like with Ritual Union, Little Dragon wanted to take a big step forward, but they just didn't know what direction to do it in or how to do it. There are certainly changes to the exterior aesthetic of the group, but they are incremental shifts- nothing major; the major changes tend to be blunders. Thankfully, the basic structure of what I hoped a Little Dragon album would be remains largely intact, and still wonderfully colourful, vibrant and unique. In the end, I think Machine Dreams is the superior album, but I still definitely recommend this. While Little Dragon tries to figure out what they want to be, I'm still having a blast figuring out what they are.
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