Justice - Audio, Video, Disco - CD Album Review
If there’s two things the French can do; it’s smoke cigarettes in an aloof manner and spawn electro/house duos like that’s just what the outcome of French sex is, and much like French sex, Justice embody both.
rating: 3.5
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If theres two things the French can do; its smoke cigarettes in an aloof manner and spawn electro/house duos like thats just what the outcome of French sex is, and much like French sex, Justice embody both. Quite magnificently. So, here we are again, with Justice making their long awaited return. Sure theyve dropped remixes like cigarette butts, alongside a world tour that seemed to just go around and around, but this is what the real wait for has been since the duo (Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé) dropped their debut album back in 2007, and like Daft Punk before them (and still), they clearly dont shy away from keeping people waiting until theyre good and ready. Speaking of Daft Punk, lets get them out of the way now (though theyll be cropping up again with this album), comparisons will always be made between Justice and Daft Punk (as will any other French pairing with a penchant for Electro and House). French duo. Electro/House Producers. Dance music that the indie kids love. The release ethic of The Second Coming. The sound. Rock star quality. Future-retroist influences. Etc. Etc. With Justices first album this was always a little loose, at least musically speaking, having their own unique sound, a sort of heavy metal house in amongst the electro, funk and progressive house leanings. However, with the evolution of sound from their debut to this, the sequel, Audio, Video, Disco, the duo have definitely taken a direction to the Daft, particularly Discovery era, showing in fact a similar evolution to Daft Punk from Homework to Discovery. Now that the inevitable (and perhaps lazy, yes, I know) comparison is out of the way lets focus on the album itself. In the four and a half years between their first release and its follow up, the duo have clearly been taking a wider range of influences, and especially letting them seep more playfully and openly into their sound. Perhaps too, after the relentless touring schedule and party schedule, this album comes up as the cuddly come down creature comfort to the party monster of the first album. The album coming across all at once more melodic and relaxed than the heaviness of its predecessor, which of course itself had its softer moments in tracks like the instrumental Valentine and the instrumentation on Tthhee Ppaarrttyy, here we see an expansion on these initial experiments. With this recording too, the pair saw to make this an album of real instrumentation, taking themselves out of their super producers seats and putting themselves in front of the laptop (or for this albums case a real recording studio built to their grand designs), both picking up guitars and taking vocal duties in equal measure, and you can hear it in the production and the feel of the album. Through this more melodic and laidback (as Gaspard has himself described daytime) direction and real instrumentation, in slides a more subdued and subtle groove to proceedings, feeling less synthetic and more natural than the first, all the while less aggressive; less machine more human, sexy as opposed to frightening. Taking as lead example of this you could look at On n On, this song is a band song, and is written accordingly, sure its got the rise and fall sensibilities of dance dynamics, but its structured like cool, sleek pop featuring a solid vocal right through as opposed to the usual sampled sloganeering. Showing Justice can write songs not just beats and grooves. Following this vain on here youve got songs like Ohio, opening with layered vocal harmonies before the kind of instrumental backing 70s prog bands would have been putting out, had they been getting laid and not afraid to let the bass do some walking. Not forgetting some funky synth and beat work that ebb and flow through the layered harmonies throughout, getting their strut on truly by the end.