Shaking the Habitual
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Shaking the Habitual
| type = studio
| artist = the Knife
| cover = The Knife - Shaking the Habitual.png
| alt =
| released = {{Start date|2013|4|5|df=yes}}
| recorded = 2010–2012
| studio = Stockholm and Berlin
| genre = * Electronic
- experimental{{cite web |last=Miller |first=Derek |url=https://www.residentadvisor.net/reviews/12787 |title=The Knife – Shaking The Habitual |website=Resident Advisor |date=12 April 2013 |accessdate=3 January 2020}}
| length = 77:18 (1-disc version)
96:20 (2-disc version)
| label = Rabid
| producer = The Knife
| prev_title = Tomorrow, in a Year
| prev_year = 2010
| next_title =
| next_year =
| misc = {{Singles
| name = Shaking the Habitual
| type = studio
| single1 = Full of Fire
| single1date = 28 January 2013
| single2 = A Tooth for an Eye
| single2date = 18 February 2013
| single3 = Raging Lung
| single3date = 2 September 2013
| single4 = Without You My Life Would Be Boring
| single4date = 20 May 2014
}}
}}
Shaking the Habitual is the fourth and final studio album by Swedish electronic music duo the Knife. It was released on 5 April 2013 by Rabid Records. The album was released as a double CD and triple LP,{{cite web |last=Phillips |first=Amy |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/48967-the-knife-album-shaking-the-habitual-is-almost-100-minutes-long-epic-tracklist-reveals/ |title=The Knife Album Shaking the Habitual Is Almost 100 Minutes Long, Epic Tracklist Reveals |website=Pitchfork |date=25 January 2013 |accessdate=27 January 2013}} and as a digital download. The album was lauded by critics at the time of its release and was featured on several critics' year-end lists.
"Full of Fire" was released as the album's lead single on 28 January 2013.{{cite web |url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00B3OWHJE |title=Full of Fire: The Knife: MP3 Downloads |website=Amazon |location=United Kingdom |accessdate=23 October 2015}} An accompanying short film was directed by Marit Östberg, who contributed a film to the 2009 Swedish feminist porn compilation Dirty Diaries.{{cite web |last=Knight |first=David |url=https://www.promonews.tv/videos/2013/01/30/knife-full-fire-marit-%C3%B6stberg/16615 |title=The Knife 'Full of Fire' by Marit Östberg |website=Promo News |date=30 January 2013 |accessdate=3 January 2020}} The album's second single, "A Tooth for an Eye", was released on 18 February 2013,{{cite web |url=https://se.7digital.com/artist/the-knife/release/a-tooth-for-an-eye/ |title=A Tooth For An Eye (2013) {{!}} The Knife |website=7digital |location=Sweden |accessdate=23 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191302/https://se.7digital.com/artist/the-knife/release/a-tooth-for-an-eye/ |archive-date=4 March 2016}} for which a music video was directed by Roxy Farhat and Kakan Hermansson.{{cite web |last=Pelly |first=Jenn |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/49563-watch-the-knife-share-video-for-new-single-a-tooth-for-an-eye/ |title=Watch: The Knife Dismantle Gender Roles in Video for New Single "A Tooth for an Eye" |website=Pitchfork |date=8 March 2013 |accessdate=15 March 2013}} The duo embarked on the Shaking the Habitual Tour in support of the album, starting on 26 April 2013 in Bremen, Germany.{{cite web |url=http://theknife.net/show/ |title=Shaking The Habitual Shows |website=TheKnife.net |accessdate=15 March 2013 |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130315171812/http://theknife.net/show/ |archivedate=15 March 2013}}
Background
On 18 April 2011, it was announced that the Knife was recording a new album, initially set to be released in 2012, through a post on the duo's website about the housing rights of Romani people in Rome.{{cite web |url=http://theknife.net/2011/04/take-action-for-the-housing-rights-of-roma-in-rome/ |title=Take action for the housing rights of Roma in Rome! |website=TheKnife.net |date=18 April 2011 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121080725/http://theknife.net/2011/04/take-action-for-the-housing-rights-of-roma-in-rome/ |archivedate=21 January 2013}} Shaking the Habitual was officially announced on 12 December 2012, along with a teaser video posted on YouTube.{{cite web |last=Phillips |first=Amy |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/48903-the-knife-return-with-new-album/ |title=The Knife Return With New Album |website=Pitchfork |date=12 December 2012 |accessdate=2 February 2013}} The album was recorded in Stockholm and Berlin from 2010 to 2012.
In October 2012, Shannon Funchess of Brooklyn-based electronic music duo Light Asylum revealed in interviews with Dazed & Confused and music blog No Conclusion that she would contribute vocals to a track on the album, with lyrics written by visual artist Emily Roysdon.{{cite web |last=Battan |first=Carrie |url=https://pitchfork.com/news/48226-new-album-from-the-knife-will-feature-light-asylums-shannon-funchess/ |title=New Album From the Knife Will Feature Light Asylum's Shannon Funchess |website=Pitchfork |date=19 October 2012 |accessdate=11 April 2013}}
For the artwork of Shaking the Habitual, the duo commissioned Malmö-based illustrator Liv Strömquist to design a comic book titled End Extreme Wealth that turns the right wing's discourse against the poor on its head, depicting the 1% as a culturally-impoverished and vermin-like "other". "It came out of the idea, 'How do we use the area of the record cover in the best political way?{{' "}} Olof Dreijer said. "It's about bringing focus to extreme wealth rather than poverty being the problem of the world."{{cite web |last=Myers |first=Owen |url=http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/15961/1/feature-the-knife-interview |title=Feature: The Knife interview |website=Dazed Digital |date=4 April 2013 |accessdate=27 April 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130407221801/http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/15961/1/feature-the-knife-interview |archivedate=7 April 2013}}
Themes and influences
Shaking the Habitual takes its title from a quote by French philosopher Michel Foucault.{{cite magazine |last=Ugwu |first=Reggie |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1552504/the-knife-ends-7-year-hiatus-with-politically-charged-album |title=The Knife Ends 7-Year Hiatus With Politically Charged Album |magazine=Billboard |date=19 March 2013 |accessdate=14 April 2013}} The album is inspired by the duo's readings in feminist and queer theory,{{cite web |last=Sherburne |first=Philip |url=https://www.spin.com/2013/04/the-knife-shaking-the-habitual-interview/ |title=Bleeding Edge: The Knife Talk 'Shaking the Habitual' |work=Spin |date=5 April 2013 |accessdate=23 October 2015}} while discussing environmentalism and structuralism. Olof attended a course in gender studies at Stockholm University and shared his reading list with Karin. On 9 April 2013, the Knife released a Marit Östberg-directed video titled "Shaking the Habitual – The Interview", explaining the process of making the album. They state, "What we do is political. That should be impossible to misunderstand."{{cite web |author=The Knife |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F37Yg17-JQ |title=Shaking The Habitual – The Interview |date=9 April 2013 |accessdate=11 April 2013 |via=YouTube}} They criticise the institution of the royal family and the nuclear family calling it "an institution that conserves inequality, injustice and exclusion", while advocating for living "in solidarity beyond nuclear families, nations and economical unions." In an interview with Pitchfork, Karin suggested that "people would be happier sharing things and being much more of a collective rather than working from these neo-liberal ideas of just looking after yourself."{{cite web |last=Dombal |first=Ryan |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/9092-the-knife/ |title=Interviews: The Knife |website=Pitchfork |date=26 March 2013 |accessdate=11 April 2013}}
The duo also criticise the "commercial homogenisation" of the music industry, saying it constitutes an "extremely hierarchical structure". Speaking to The Guardian, Karin mentioned how music artists are "getting even more commercial because they are selling their music to advertisements and going on tours with big alcohol brands", and questioned "how music and art can continue to develop or challenge itself within these new, very commercial frames." They also spoke of authenticity and quoted philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler, who says, "We are always in drag".{{cite web |last=Richards |first=Sam |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/mar/23/the-knife-shaking-the-habitual |title=The Knife: 'Music history is written by privileged white men' |work=The Guardian |date=23 March 2013 |accessdate=23 October 2015}}
The video for "Full of Fire", among other things, questions a policy in Sweden that offers tax deductions for wealthy families who employ maids. The line "I'm telling you stories, trust me" in the song "A Tooth for an Eye" is borrowed from Karin's favourite Jeanette Winterson book, The Passion (1987). The interludes "Crake" and "Oryx" are named after characters in Margaret Atwood's 2003 dystopian novel Oryx and Crake. "Old Dreams Waiting to Be Realized" takes its title from an article written by Nina Björk for Swedish magazine Glänta.{{cite web |last=Saxelby |first=Ruth |url=https://www.dummymag.com/features/the-knife-interview-a-new-way-of-thinking/ |title=The Knife interview: "A new way of thinking." |website=Dummy Mag |date=8 April 2013 |accessdate=23 October 2015}}
==Critical reception==
{{Album ratings
| rev1 = AllMusic
| rev2 = The A.V. Club
| rev2score = A−{{cite web |last=Richards |first=M. T. |url=https://www.avclub.com/the-knife-shaking-the-habitual-1798176421 |title=The Knife: Shaking The Habitual |work=The A.V. Club |date=9 March 2016 |access-date=3 January 2020}}
| rev3 = The Daily Telegraph
| rev3score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite web |last=Brown |first=Helen |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/9972109/The-Knife-Shaking-the-Habitual-album-review.html |title=The Knife, Shaking the Habitual, album review |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=5 April 2013 |accessdate=23 October 2015}}
| rev4 = The Guardian
| rev5 = The Independent
| rev6 = MSN Music (Expert Witness)
| rev7 = NME
| rev8 = Pitchfork
| rev9 = Rolling Stone
| rev9score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}
| rev10 = Spin
}}
Shaking the Habitual received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 85, based on 43 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".{{cite web |url=https://www.metacritic.com/music/shaking-the-habitual/the-knife |title=Reviews for Shaking the Habitual by The Knife |publisher=Metacritic |accessdate=4 April 2013}} Robert Christgau of MSN Music praised the album as "an exciting, multivalent Dreijer sibling showcase".{{cite web |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |url=http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/blog--the-knife-they-might-be-giants |title=The Knife/They Might Be Giants |website=MSN Music |date=19 April 2013 |accessdate=19 April 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130428001752/http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/blog--the-knife-they-might-be-giants |archivedate=28 April 2013}} Uncut{{'}}s Rob Young wrote that Karin "possesses one of the most distinctive Scandinavian voices since Björk", referring to the duo's songs as "genetic pop mutations, scampering out of control".{{cite magazine |last=Young |first=Rob |title=The Knife: Shaking The Habitual |magazine=Uncut |page=73 |date=April 2013 |issn=1368-0722}} Lindsay Zoladz of Pitchfork hailed Shaking the Habitual as the duo's "most political, ambitious, accomplished album, but in a strange way it also feels like its most personal".{{cite web |last=Zoladz |first=Lindsay |url=https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17847-the-knife-shaking-the-habitual/ |title=The Knife: Shaking the Habitual |website=Pitchfork |date=8 April 2013 |accessdate=8 April 2013}} Philip Sherburne of Spin remarked that the Knife have "never sounded more in tune with the materiality of sound or the sonorousness of the physical world."{{cite web |last=Sherburne |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Sherburne |url=https://www.spin.com/2013/04/the-knife-shaking-the-habitual-mute/ |title=The Knife, 'Shaking the Habitual' (Mute) |work=Spin|date=8 April 2013 |accessdate=23 October 2015}} AllMusic's Heather Phares opined that "Shaking the Habitual isn't as cohesive or accessible as Silent Shout, and after experiencing the whole thing, fans may not return to it often, but it's hard to deny that it's an often stunning work of art", dubbing the album "a testament to the Knife's skill that they make such formidable sounds so compelling for so long".{{cite web |last=Phares |first=Heather |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/shaking-the-habitual-mw0002470619 |title=Shaking the Habitual – The Knife |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=8 April 2013}} Reviewer Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times praised the entire album, and the singing in a "Siouxsie Sioux-style gravity amid a fusillade of eerie electronic beats", qualifying the result as "foreboding, apocalyptic and strangely exhilarating".{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/2c4274ea-9c11-11e2-a820-00144feabdc0|title=The Knife: Shaking the Habitual|work=Financial Times|first=Ludovic |last=Hunter-Tilney |date=5 April 2013|accessdate=8 April 2013}}
Maya Kalev of Fact noted that "[f]ans of Silent Shout and Deep Cuts [...] will find Shaking the Habitual{{'}}s hybrid of post-punk, techno, industrial, coldwave, drone and electro-pop discomforting", adding, "At Shaking the Habitual{{'}}s core are the processes of deconstruction and reconstruction, so rare in the tradition of mostly reiterative pop music that the album feels transgressive".{{cite web |last=Kalev |first=Maya |url=https://www.factmag.com/2013/04/08/the-knife-shaking-the-habitual/ |title=Shaking the Habitual |work=Fact |date=8 April 2013 |accessdate=23 October 2015}} The Independent critic Simon Price described the album as "long [...], strange, disturbing, uncomfortable, challenging. But it never fails to fascinate."{{cite web |last=Price |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Price |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-the-knife-shaking-the-habitual-rabid-8562940.html |title=Album: The Knife, Shaking the Habitual (Rabid) |work=The Independent |date=6 April 2013 |accessdate=9 April 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130408055250/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-the-knife-shaking-the-habitual-rabid-8562940.html |archivedate=8 April 2013}} Louis Pattison of NME expressed, "Sporadically brilliant, perhaps it is the Knife's Inland Empire—a fearless piece of work with its own logic, one that shears away all safety nets. Invention, stark and undiluted."{{cite web |last=Pattison |first=Louis |url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/the-knife/14276 |title=The Knife – 'Shaking The Habitual' |work=NME |date=8 April 2013 |accessdate=9 April 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093341/http://www.nme.com/reviews/the-knife/14276 |archivedate=4 March 2016}} Anna Wilson of Clash concluded, "Increasingly aggressive and overtly detuned, [Karin and Olof's] individual styles have collided to create something elemental, immense and unsettling. Self-possessed and uncompromising, this is a record with regal bearing."{{cite magazine |last=Wilson |first=Anna |url=https://www.clashmusic.com/reviews/the-knife-shaking-the-habitual |title=The Knife – Shaking The Habitual |magazine=Clash |issue=84 |date=2 April 2013 |accessdate=2 April 2013}} Rolling Stone{{'}}s Jon Dolan wrote that, compared to Silent Shout, Shaking the Habitual "explores even wilder styles of mordantly nutso android bleat".{{cite magazine |last=Dolan |first=Jon |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/shaking-the-habitual-90484/ |title=Shaking the Habitual |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=8 April 2013 |accessdate=3 January 2020}} Eric Henderson of Slant Magazine viewed that most of the album "consign[s] anything remotely hooky into the realm of affectation", and the lyrics are "delivered by some of Karin's most obtuse vocal performances to date, her sinewy androgynous pipes muscling through slide-whistle octaves fearlessly and tunelessly."{{cite web |last=Henderson |first=Eric |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/the-knife-shaking-the-habitual/ |title=Review: The Knife, Shaking the Habitual |website=Slant Magazine |date=7 April 2013 |accessdate=3 January 2020}} Hayden Woolley of Drowned in Sound found the album "unnavigable and unknowable, almost impossible to write about and even harder to listen to."{{cite web |last=Woolley |first=Hayden |url=http://drownedinsound.com/releases/17562/reviews/4146248 |title=The Knife – Shaking the Habitual |website=Drowned in Sound |date=2 April 2013 |accessdate=2 April 2013 |archive-date=5 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405061811/http://drownedinsound.com/releases/17562/reviews/4146248 |url-status=dead }} The Guardian{{'}}s Alexis Petridis felt that "Shaking the Habitual{{'}}s problem is that the Knife seem to have dismissed the idea of making your point concisely as merely another affectation of a decadent and corrupt society", describing the album as "alternately utterly gripping and unbearably boring; incredibly bold and strangely flaccid, viscerally thrilling and hopelessly over-thought."{{cite web |last=Petridis |first=Alexis |author-link=Alexis Petridis |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/apr/04/the-knife-shaking-habitual-review |title=The Knife: Shaking the Habitual – review |work=The Guardian |date=4 April 2013 |accessdate=23 October 2015}}
=Accolades=
In March 2014, Shaking the Habitual won the Nordic Music Prize.{{cite web |last=Studarus |first=Laura |url=http://www.undertheradarmag.com/news/the_knife_wins_the_nordic_music_prize |title=The Knife Wins the Nordic Music Prize |work=Under the Radar |date=1 March 2014 |accessdate=12 March 2014}}
Track listing
{{Track listing
| all_writing = the Knife, except where noted
| headline = Disc one
| title1 = A Tooth for an Eye
| length1 = 6:04
| title2 = Full of Fire
| length2 = 9:17
| title3 = A Cherry on Top
| length3 = 8:43
| title4 = Without You My Life Would Be Boring
| length4 = 5:14
| title5 = Wrap Your Arms Around Me
| length5 = 4:36
| title6 = Crake
| length6 = 0:55
| title7 = Old Dreams Waiting to Be Realized
| length7 = 19:02
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Disc two
| title1 = Raging Lung
| length1 = 9:58
| title2 = Networking
| length2 = 6:42
| title3 = Oryx
| length3 = 0:37
| title4 = Stay Out Here
| note4 = with Shannon Funchess and Emily Roysdon; lyrics: Roysdon; music: Funchess, Roysdon, The Knife
| length4 = 10:42
| title5 = Fracking Fluid Injection
| length5 = 9:54
| title6 = Ready to Lose
| length6 = 4:36
}}
{{Track listing
| headline = Rough Trade exclusive bonus disc{{cite web |url=http://www.roughtrade.com/albums/69952 |title=The Knife: Shaking The Habitual – Rough Trade Exclusive With Bonus Cd |publisher=Rough Trade |accessdate=5 April 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130409032947/http://www.roughtrade.com/albums/69952 |archivedate=9 April 2013}}
| title1 = A Tooth for an Eye
| note1 = Cooly G Remix
| length1 = 4:21
| title2 = A Tooth for an Eye
| note2 = Pursuit Grooves Remix
| length2 = 5:02
| title3 = Full of Fire
| note3 = music video
| title4 = A Tooth for an Eye
| note4 = music video
}}
Notes
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Shaking the Habitual.{{cite AV media notes |title=Shaking the Habitual |type=liner notes |others=The Knife |publisher=Rabid Records |year=2013 |id=RABID048}}
{{Div col}}
- The Knife – recording, production, mixing
- Shannon Funchess – vocals on "Stay Out Here"
- Mikael Häggström – maracas on "Wrap Your Arms Around Me"
- Johannes Berglund – mixing
- Mandy Parnell – mastering
- Liv Strömquist – comic, typeface Liv Fraktura
- Studio SM – artwork
- Martin Falck – artwork
{{Div col end}}
Charts
class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" |
scope="col"| Chart (2013)
! scope="col"| Peak |
---|
{{album chart|Australia|50|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=16 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|Austria|70|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=17 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|Flanders|16|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=20 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|Wallonia|75|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=20 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|Denmark|13|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=20 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|Netherlands|67|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=12 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|Finland|26|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=23 October 2015}} |
{{album chart|France|193|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=24 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|Germany4|67|id=214998|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=23 October 2015}} |
{{album chart|Ireland2|30|artist=The Knife|rowheader=true|accessdate=3 January 2020}} |
scope="row"| Irish Independent Albums (IRMA){{cite web |url=http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p/musicvideo/music/archive/index_test.jsp&ct=240007&arch=t&lyr=2013&year=2013&week=15 |title=Top 10 Independent Artist Albums, Week Ending 11 April 2013 |publisher=Chart-Track |accessdate=12 April 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304073212/http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p%2Fmusicvideo%2Fmusic%2Farchive%2Findex_test.jsp&ct=240007&arch=t&lyr=2013&year=2013&week=15 |archivedate=4 March 2016 |url-status=live }}
| 3 |
{{album chart|Norway|22|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=15 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|Scotland|30|date=20130414|rowheader=true|accessdate=3 March 2015}} |
{{album chart|Sweden|8|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=20 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|Switzerland|77|artist=The Knife|album=Shaking the Habitual|rowheader=true|accessdate=20 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|UK2|31|date=20130414|rowheader=true|accessdate=3 January 2020}} |
{{album chart|Billboard200|52|artist=The Knife|rowheader=true|accessdate=18 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|BillboardIndependent|9|artist=The Knife|rowheader=true|accessdate=18 April 2013}} |
{{album chart|BillboardDanceElectronic|2|artist=The Knife|rowheader=true|accessdate=18 April 2013}} |
Release history
References
{{Reflist}}
{{The Knife}}
{{Authority control}}