What’s for Dinner? That’s a good question when it comes to the Danish singer and professional knob-turner (a.k.a. producer) Anders Rhedin. He serves up some slick beats, sings like a giraffe with indigestion, and is totally 100% weird in every way possible.
Music has evolved to the point where someone like Joe Newman from the band Alt-J can not only get a record contract and go on tour but can attract legions of fans and win a Mercury Prize, even though he sings like Kermit the Frog. That means there’s hope for Rhedin. Let’s go ahead and call his vocal delivery highly unique, albeit seriously aided (or addled?) with effects. Try at least one song. You know the older brother on the the show Everybody Loves Raymond? You know the sock puppet you used as a kid to make funny noises? Yep, similar.
The only other option was for Rhedin to consider going instrumental, but that’s the ultimate death curse. Once you get past the unusual vocal delivery, the world opens up to you. Rhedin knows how to program stuff better than half the people in your Google Docs class. “Wake Up” has a brilliant intersecting piano part — heck, you could just listen to that sample, and the song would be worth it. “Gone” sneaks up on you with an ‘90s-era chorus, a la the show Fresh Off the Boat — minus the cargo pants and wearing your hat backwards and doing the peace sign.
None of this is to be taken that seriously, judging from some of the lyrics. “Someone please tell me it’s alright / something’s gonna turn me on” sings Rhedin, eventually letting the swirls of synths echo into oblivion like waves crashing against your subwoofer. “What You Got” makes the case for why this is all worth a listen at least, because it’s so different and otherworldly — the song grows on you like poison ivy. Then, by the time “Wake Up” starts with a fresh beat and what can only be described halfway through as a disco breakdown, you get a little hooked on it. You think “that was really weird” and then want to check it out again.
Maybe. I played a few songs for friends, and they gave me a confused/startled look. It’s not the confused and interested look as much as just confused by what was happening but not that interested in figuring it out. It sounds a bit like you took Captain and Tennille (or at least Captain) and down-sampled their music, ran the vocals through a pipe organ, and then shot one of their hits (say, “Muskrat Love” or “Love Will Keep Us Together”) full of amphetamines.
Before you dive right in and embrace him as an emerging artist based solely on that description, try watching one of his YouTube videos first. If you make it all of the way through (the one for the song “Cool As Ice” features Rhedin singing straight into the camera), you might be ready for the entire album. It’s a wild ride at the circus, mostly thanks to the sock puppets.