Fever Ray: Plunge – a mood of menace

Trailed by a mysterious video, preceded by an arresting single, To the Moon and Back, and stealth-released on Friday, Fever Ray’s first new music in eight years finds Karin Dreijer (she seems to have lost the Andersson) in fierce form. Pitch-shifted into a pervading mood of menace, Dreijer’s vocals grapple with sex and relationships, with political engagement never far away (“Free abortions and clean water!” she huffs on This Country). Her electronics, meanwhile, are unrelentingly engaging, never just hitting presets. IDK About You uses a female gasp as percussion while the title track is an easygoing instrumental that suggests Kraftwerk.