electro-pop idol

On today's mix...
Justice - † (2007)
Ratatat - Ratatat (2004)

With Human After All a distant dud, and Daft Punk ensuring their legacy by doing all but creating new music, it may be time to start looking for a new king for the electro-pop they pioneered. So in the spirit of competition--following last night's American Idol t.r.a.v.e.s.t.y.--I decided to add the debuts of Ratatat and Justice to my mix today, bands I've loved from the singles but haven't heard through a whole album. With their electric harpsichords promising J. S. Bach-to-the-future, Ratatat are great at building off Daft Punk's ambition, while the hypnotically delightful Justice are content to melt it down to its most fun elements.

Of course, fun trumps ambition when it comes to setting out on a run, so I put † first on my mix. Justice aren't afraid to make their ambitions clear: giving the first two tracks the tongue-and-cheek names "Genesis" and "Let There Be Light", they'd like to write the Bible on fun. Really, they're not too far off. The Michael Jackson homage "D.A.N.C.E." was the definitive summer '07 song and as fun as anything Jackson himself ever produced. If it's not particularly representative of the album as a whole, though, it's not a bad thing.

It's fun to piece together the various influences. Daft Punk, obviously, reigns strong. "Phantom" is a worthy follow-up to "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger", again proving that the human voice can be the most exciting instrument if properly exploited. "Phantom, Part 2", meanwhile, continues with the same beat but instead evokes Discovery's "Veridis Quo". The poppy "DVNO" samples disco classic "Forget Me Nots" (or maybe just Will Smith). And "Stress" moves forward off of the beehive opening of Hot Chip's "Over and Over".

Aside from the more straightforward "DVNO", "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy", and "D.A.N.C.E.", the album mostly succeeds through their love of chopping up vocals and scattering, replacing odd beats with indecipherable snippits. And while the gimmick is enough to keep the album fun throughout, it feels arbitrary as often as not, and the album, thus, tends to fall apart the more you dissect it. However, it's impossible to deny that † simply works. It's hard to reach a verdict on Justice at this point, but tracks like "D.A.N.C.E." and "Waters of Nazareth" ensure that you'll be back for more once they release their follow-up.

Ratatat have a sound that's striking and immediate, and four years later, their debut still sounds fresh. Their glossy, Baroque electronica is impossible to resist on opener "Seventeen Years", and I was really excited to hear them expand on the sound. Unfortunately, they don't. The sound is remarkably consistent throughout, with the end result that the vast majority of the tracks are difficult to distinguish from each other. "Germany to Germany" and closer "Cherry" might be triumphs on any other album, but it's hard to escape the monotony--though, of course, it's an exceptionally awesome monotony. Anyone who enjoyed "Seventeen Years" will enjoy this album, but it's best relegated to the background. It really can't compare with † in terms of richness, but it did compel me to run an extra 3.5 miles to hear it through.

For now, I'd give Justice the edge in my imaginary race to the electro-pop throne. We'll see, though, what else Ratatat have to offer when they drop LP3 and LP4 in the next few months.

†: 9/10
Ratatat: 5/10