Having followed up his Polaris Prize-winning 2007 record Andorra with the universally adored Swim in 2010 (selling nearly 175,000 copies worldwide and being named Album of the Year by Rough Trade, Mixmag, and Resident Advisor while also hitting The Guardian, Pitchfork, Spin, and Mojo’s Top 20), Dan had spent the intervening four years touring the world, bringing not only the sounds of Caribou to the stage but proving his immeasurable worth as a DJ with epic 7½-hour-long sets. In 2012, Caribou were personally invited to join Radiohead on the road while Dan released his first album under the guise of his dance floor-loving pseudonym Daphni to widespread critical acclaim. Following the shape-shifting sounds of JIAOLONG and the brightly textured, fluid constructions of Swim – both inward-looking records in their own way – Dan withdrew to the basement once more to work on Caribou’s next opus.
The result is Suddenly, a warm, untamable, and constantly surprising record about family and the changes we go through as those relationships evolve. The album takes Caribou's previous open-armed explorations of the concept of love in its grandest form and winnows that concept down, directly applying it to real life and the people to whom that love means the most. The title itself references the moments of dramatic and unexpected change that occur at points in any life and within any family—universal themes that can catch you off guard and change your life in a heartbeat. Suddenly is in the music too- while the songs retain Snaith's trademark warmth and technicolor this album is littered with swerves and left turns, making it the most surprising and unpredictable Caribou effort to date.
