Henric De La Cour – Gimme Daggers

The 3rd Henric De La Cour album 'Gimme Daggers' is as strong as the debut

Album facts

Release Date: September 14th 2018
Label: Progress Production
Genre: Dark Wave, Henric De La Cour, New Wave, Synth Pop
Discogs: Link

Gimme the new album

The long anti­cip­ated album from 'Henric De La Cour' has arrived and it's a mas­ter­piece. The former mem­ber of Yvonne and Strup Music has pushed his solo career to new heights with 'Gimme Daggers'.

It’s dark with strong influ­ences from 80s era new wave. I fell in love with this album imme­di­ately. It's fresh and new but is also some­how nos­tal­gic and familiar.

Opening Slowly

The album opens with 'Slow Death' Intro. It is a mostly instru­ment­al, quasi orches­tral track set­ting the atmo­sphere for the rest of the album.

The song sets a crawl­ing, anti­cip­at­ory pace that slowly trans­itions seam­lessly into 'Kowalski Was Here'. This track has a walk­ing back­ground beat with hand clap sounds through­out the song layered under vocals from de la Cour and upbeat syn­thes­izers. There is a feel­ing of empti­ness and hope­less­ness in the tone, like you've come to the end of a long journey.

The '80's Are Back

Next up, 'Two Against One' is what would hap­pen if the 'Sisters of Mercy' and 'The Smiths' made a song togeth­er in the cur­rent era. The gui­tar is chunky and Electrorock while the lyr­ics and vocals are mor­ose and brooding.

'Body Politic' is prob­ably my favor­ite on the record. The orches­tral music is beau­ti­fully arranged. The vocals and lyr­ics are mourn­ful and shine over the music like a light in the dark­ness. It's an emo­tion­al song that grows on you.

I've been through worse my love, I fight it off, I fight it back, there will be noth­ing left to rest upon
Lyrics from 'Body Politic' by Henric De La Cour

'Driver' is up tempo and excit­ing. It starts off slowly and builds and finally breaks through to the chor­us that swells and cres­cendos sud­denly to, just as quickly drop off to min­im­al­ist­ic elec­tron­ics. Then the buildup begins again. It gives the song a really dynam­ic feel­ing and charges it with emo­tion. The music is sim­il­ar to early She Wants Revenge.

A Mix of Old and New

'Hank Sometimes' has swirl­ing wind and siren like tones in it with a fast beat under­neath, giv­ing the song a sense of urgency. The chor­us is remin­is­cent of the Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams', and is one of the more industrial/ ambi­ent songs on the record.

The vocals in 'Mr. D' are layered mak­ing them feel full and rich. Like 'Hank Sometimes', 'Mr. D' also has a sense of urgency that derives from the back beat. The over­all tone how­ever is mys­ter­i­ous. The syn­thes­izer comes in waves, evok­ing images of docks covered in early morn­ing fog.

I feel I'm get­ting closer, I am burn­ing with blind­ing pain
Lyrics from 'New Building' by Henric De La Cour

'New Building' has a mod­ern feel and it builds slowly. It’s a more relaxed song, slow and groovy. It reminds me of a mix between She Wants Revenge's not 'Just A Girl' from their 'Valleyheart' album and songs from The Killers' Sam's Town.

Please is a beau­ti­ful duet. It starts off with female vocals by Camilla Karlsson and Henric De La Cour comes in and har­mon­izes. 'Teeth', Please is anoth­er mourn­ful, emo­tion­al track. It sounds so sad, and has hand clap sounds through­out and ends with Electrorock gui­tar riffs.

Bleak and Hollow

'Worthless Web' is aptly titled. It’s a dark song both music­ally and lyr­ic­ally. It leaves you with a hol­low, long­ing, and bleak feel­ings. The lyr­ics evoke feel­ings of heart­break. It’s the epi­tome of a goth­ic romantic song.

I will give you shel­ter from the rain and I will keep you away from the sun too, all things remain the same end­less and grey and forever insane, worth­less and point­less to do
Lyrics from 'Worthless Web' by Henric De La Cour

'Arkham Supermarket' sounds like it could track a video­game. It's the fast­est song on the album, with big power­ful drum beats. The vocals on the song sound sim­il­ar to David Bowie's 'Blackstar', just with more elec­tron­ic distortion.

The album ends with 'Fury'. It's stripped down and min­im­al­ist­ic and a per­fect note to end on. The syn­thes­izers whirl behind more emo­tion­al vocals.

An Instant Favorite

'Gimme Daggers' starts off with a very 80s sound and trans­itions the mod­ern era as it pro­gresses. It’s a great mix of nos­tal­gia and fresh sound. Henric De La Cour's vocals are power­ful. I can't stop listen­ing to the album. 'Gimme Daggers' has earned a spot amongst my favor­ites and will be an album I will return to again and again all my life.

By the way, this album also made it into our art­icle ‘The best Synth Pop and genre-related albums 2018‘. Read now.

Track By Track Rating

Henric De La Cour – Gimme Daggers

Slow Death Intro

Kowalski Was Here

Two Against One

Body Politic

Driver

Hank Sometimes

Dr. D

New Building

Teeth, Please

Worthless Web

Arkham Supermarket

Fury

Recommend

Body Politic

Worthless Web

Weak

(Nothing to report here)

3.96

New Favorite