Silent Shout is another album I found while exploring new music in those years when revising for my A-Levels would have been the more advisable option. Pitchfork had named it the best album of 2006, and seeing as that place was meant to be seen as the top critic for indie music – I thought I would give it a listen. I did. There were some songs I liked, and others that I didn’t much care for. ‘Like a Pen’ took a while for me to get into. But once I did, it’s been a mainstay on the brain since.

The track was released as a single in ’06, and came out with a music video with an edit that made the song about three minutes shorter than the album version. I much prefer it the way it is on the album. The building and the adding of layers during the introduction, as well as the lengthy instrumental outro, add so much more to the energy of the track that is missed from the video edit. I’ll put the music video down below though.

An aspect of Silent Shout that always stuck out to me was singer-songwriter Karin Dreijer’s voice. There’s a tone to it that sticks in my head. The fact that her accent heavily affects its delivery may have something to do with that feeling. And her vocal delivery mixed with the video-game like production makes for a catchy listen, although it does manage to give off this slight ominous quality that gives the track that slight edge. Genius said it’s about body anxiety, ‘with the narrator wanting to minimize their body to something visible’…. I think it’s about something a lot more personal. If you were to see the lyrics, you could take a guess.