Fever Ray's First Song In 8 Years, 'To The Moon And Back,' Is A Gloriously Dark Hello

Advisory: The above video and below language almost certainly contains content that some may find offensive.

Do you remember the first time you heard Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" or Peaches' "F*** The Pain Away," when they pawed at your ears and elsewhere — like, lower elsewhere? Explicit music gives the power of liberated exultation to its instigator, but also its receptor. Eight years since Fever Ray's sonically dense and, at times, lyrically impenetrable but often sweet self-titled debut, Karin Dreijer is back and kinky as hell.

"To The Moon And Back" comes after a series of teaser videos released this week, both featuring slinky music of a different piece than what's heard on this track, advertising a singles hotline called "Karma Kinksters" where you can actually call and leave and message. Synths pulse gleefully like The Knife's early records, a pinball machine of electro-pop lighting up every corner, banged into an ecstatic slam tilt. After years of pushing The Knife to its most challenging (and rewarding) extremes with her brother Olof, "To The Moon And Back" is one of Karin Dreijer's most accessible songs, singing, "Oh, I'm done lookin' / Now things can start happenin'," like a declaration of newfound freedom.

Which brings us to the video directed by Martin Falck, where a person is reanimated to life and finds her way to a celebration of kink — a BDSM tea party culminating in a golden shower. You could never accuse Dreijer of being conventional, but even at her most sordid, there is something so warm and loving when she sings, "I want to ram my fingers up your" — well.

Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.