Brightest Young Things

Last week being a semi-seminal summer release week, we made Matthew do 4 mini reviews instead of 1 big one. Today: Justice and Gogol Bordello (since, you know, there can never be too many Bordello namedrops in one day), tomorrow Interpol and Spoon.

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Rating system
0 stars - Complete and utter garbage
1 star - Best just not to ever press play, save your ears for another day
2 stars - Not completely atrocious, but one you'll probably forget about as soon as it's over
3 stars - Good, but not great, likely with some excellent songs and others you'll skip right through
4 stars - Damn good album, one you'll definitely want to enjoy again and again
5 stars - Instant Classic

Justice's +
3.5 stars

They’re French, they’re a duo and they make innovative dance music, unfortunately with Justice, there are no robots suits to be found. The pre-release buzz for Cross (actually the symbol, not the word), their debut album, has been absolutely through the roof based on the strength of several early singles and remixes for everyone from Death from Above 1979 to Britney Spears. At this point, most of you have already heard “D.A.N.C.E.” and if you haven’t, please stop reading this and go listen to it now. It’s absolutely amazing and quickly becoming the song of the summer. (since we are feeling generous: here's an MP3 here via spinner.com)

So does the rest of the album live up to the hype and the first single? Not exactly, but it depends what you came in search of. The album is heavily instrumental and isn’t as full of yummy pop songs like “D.A.N.C.E.” as I would’ve liked, as “DVNO” is the only other song here with crossover single potential. Many of the instrumental numbers, however, are spectacular in their own right. Early single “Waters of Nazareth” makes an appearance here in a slightly different version and comes right at you with its crunchy synths and driving beats and dares you not to dance. “Phantom” takes what sounds like a chopped-up vocoder sample and plays it over an awesome slap-bass riff while the music behind it slowly builds and changes to keep the song sounding dynamic while the core pieces stay the same. On an album full of instrumental songs, however, it’s easy for the listener to lose his/her focus when one weak song comes along, and it happens on Cross on several occasions. Fortunately, every time those moments do occur, the next song jumps right back in and picks the album back up again. The album may not be flawless, but it has some brilliant moments.

Gogol Bordello's Super Taranta
3.5 stars

Though they’d been doing their gypsy-punk thing since 1999, Gogol Bordello had their big breakthrough with 2005’s Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, an album that tied their unique sound up into an extremely digestible little package. Super Taranta!, their first album since tasting stardom, doesn’t cover any new ground for the band, but since they’re in a genre all to themselves, they have a ton of room to work within that genre. For the uninitiated, Gogol Bordello’s sound is a fantastic mix of eastern European folk combined with punk, cabaret and a dash of dub, creating something that is completely their own. Super Taranta! comes out with guns blazing, and the first half of the album is nearly flawless. It’s full of anthems that will surely become amazing additions to the band’s incredible live show. You’ll find yourself shouting along to “Supertheory of Supereverything” or dancing around the room to the violins and accordions in “My Strange Uncles from Abroad” in no time at all. The album’s highlight is the protest anthem, “Tribal Connection” which gets a little political but doesn’t take itself too seriously and features an extremely catchy chorus and a violin part that gives me chills every time I hear it. Unfortunately, starting with track ten, “Alcohol,” the album starts to run out of steam and slowly stumbles to the finish. At one hour, five minutes and fourteen songs, the album runs a bit long and would have been better off had it dropped a few of the songs on the album’s latter half. Still, the first half of Super Taranta! is strong enough to carry it, so pick it up so that you’ll be ready to sing along at tomorrow’s show.