Susanne Sundfør’s voice is hauntingly beautiful, lilting and quavering so that it often seems on the verge of cracking. Yet you’d be a fool to think it will ever break. The single “White Foxes” off her new album The Silicone Veil quickly reached the No. 1 spot on the charts in her home country of Norway, and it’s easy to see why. Her voice is as cold and distant as the landscape she describes, a clear icy sound that pierces your ears and leaves them aching for more. While this might seem hard to improve on, Susanne Sundfør is no stranger to remixing, and along with several others, she has put together a remix EP of “White Foxes”. Featured remix artists include Big Black Delta, Kleerup and Enochson, Maps, and Sundfør herself. So, how do they compare to the original?
Honestly, I think the original “White Foxes” might still be my favorite. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good remix and all of the artists listed above did an admirable job of producing a version of the song that is uniquely their own, but in this case I just kept wishing I could hear more of the vocals without the distraction of heavy electronic beats. The remix by Kleerup and Enochson was the closest to the original, keeping the vocals mostly intact and speeding up the beat, but it just never really felt like it developed. I think my favorite remix was the one produced by Susanne Sundfør herself, as it was interesting to hear her trying some new things the second time around and continue to explore the buildup around 3:20 that is present in both versions of “White Foxes.” I enjoyed a lot of the synths she added to her voice and felt a moment of bliss when, just after the buildup, the mix went silent for a second and left Sundfør’s voice uncontested. The remixes by Big Black Delta and Maps tossed the Florence-and-the-Machine style of the original out the window in favor of a heavier electronic sound, with varying degrees of success. I didn’t find the remix by Maps to be particularly memorable, but the pulsing night-club-ready beats added by Big Black Delta were enough to get me moving. The only gripe I had with the Big Black Delta remix was that the vocals seemed somewhat overwhelmed. Her voice is powerful, but here it often seemed to be struggling to stay afloat in a sea of dirty electronic noise. All of the remixes are good in their own ways, but ultimately the original “White Foxes” by Susanne Sundfør is the only one that I am likely to listen to on a regular basis. That being said, I am still very glad she released this remix EP as I always love to hear the creative process of other artists adding their own take to a song, especially one as good as “White Foxes.”
Man Without Country also has a terrific remix of “White Foxes”, Check it out below!
