Caroline Sullivan 

Swedish House Mafia: Until Now – review

Swedish House Mafia's farewell-tour album is completely bereft of soul or brains, but as an inducement to dance it's highly effective, writes Caroline Sullivan
  
  


Having recently announced their split, Swedish House Mafia are releasing this compilation to accompany their farewell tour. Around a third of Until Now is their own music, as embodied by Greyhound – best summed up as John Barry meets the Chemical Brothers – and the jaunty Primark house of this week's No 1 single, Don't You Worry, Child. The rest is remixes and retweaked old hits, such as Miami 2 Ibiza, which has sprouted a soft-rock verse lifted from Dirty South's Walking Alone. All are subjected to the same heavy hand on the tiller: beats are stonkingly four-to-the-floor, singers wail, breakdowns shudder. The apotheosis is The Island, a blaring remix for Pendulum, which presumes anyone listening will be so trolleyed they won't notice its manifest lack of soul or brains. That said, it all has a headbanging urgency that induces anyone listening to tap a foot, so Until Now can probably be classed as a triumph for the band.

 

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