Cross [Justice]

Just easy as A.B.C.

1234 Fight!

You were such a P.Y.T.

Get ready to read a review!

I mean.... ignite!

.... yeah...........

Basic Info:

Album:  Cross

Artist:  Justice

Release Date:  June 11, 2007

Release Number:  1st Full Length Album

Track Number:  12 Tracks

Album Length:  58:36

Price (Amazon):  $13.34

Genre:  Indie-Dance

Band Bio:

Justice really came out of nowhere with this album.  Band members Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay, originally from France, are responsible for a number of popular European remixes and have done extensive work mixing with famous artists including N.E.R.D., Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, and Franz Ferdinand.  But until now, the duo has only produced one original track all their own, "Waters of Nazareth".  Its certainly a big step in a new direction for these mixing prodigies.  But its definitely not a bad move.

Album:

A good deal of the album is experimentation.  With more experience creating something new with something old, the challenge of creating something out of nothing makes for some interesting inventions.  The duos mixing background comes through consistently on tracks like "New Jack", where there is audio fading and bizarre scratching to the extent were if its new to you, you might get a little annoyed.  If this fits in nicely with your style of music though, you'll love every second.

It's also important to keep in mind what this album is for. Ans: Dancing!

And with that said, it's one of the best dance albums to be released in a very long time.  The appropriately named song "D.A.N.C.E." will get you moving whether you want to or not, and then tracks like "The Party ft. Uffie" are just wonderful laid-back musical depictions of the atmosphere this album so well encompasses.

Music video anyone?

D.A.N.C.E.

Music:

There's something wonderfully unique about the sound these two are making.  It has a simplistic nature with just the right amount of dissonance and startling... well... noise!  But through it all, it does its job well; it makes you want to dance.  

But don't mistake this for your run of the mill techno/house mix tape.  These guys have created something truly original.  The use of a vocalist in a rock and roll style instead of the monotone chanting techno-voice gives this music an era combination of jam power and raver's delight.  It's really the perfect combination.  Maybe in the next album they'll stick to some more tonal and balanced music instead of tracks like "Stress", but even with those tracks, the music is great overall.

Lyrically there's nothing missing either.  In fact there's a lot more than you would expect.  In the tracks that do have lyrics, the words are well chosen, original, and wonderfully non-repetitve as you might expect from something in the dance genre.  Total success.

Previews:

Newjack

 Stress

Waters of Nazareth

One Minute To Midnight

Ratings:

Music:  8.2

Lyrics:  7.9

Originality:  8.7

Bang for your Buck:  8.1

Indie-Cred (Obscurity):  6.9

Total Ranking:  7.96/10

Ah... Sunday...

It's sunday, and we all got a nice extended night's rest, so it's a good sunday (not THE good sunday, just one of them)

So in the future, I'm going to reserve sundays for answering questions you might have for me.  But without anything else to talk about today, at the end of my first week, I'm just going to describe my musical theory to you.

A friend of mine once suggested to me the theory that political changes happened in, roughly, 40 year cycles.  His reasoning for this was that it is, roughly, a persons half-life.  According to the theory, it is at the half-life point in our lives that we have the most effect on the world around us (most presidents were around 40 years old for example.)  We grow up being effected by what's around us, so those born during a certain type of era will re-enact that era when they have power.

And it actually seems to work... a few discrepancies... but yeah... take a look...

1776 - Revolution 

> 36 years later

1812 - War of 1812

> 38 years later

1850 - Compromise of 1850 leading to the Civil War

> ???? (my history isn't great)

??????

> ????

1918 - World War

> 42 years

1960 - Civil Rights Movement

> 41 years

2001 - 9/11

It's not flawless, but it seems to hold some basic merit... so why not apply it to music?!?!

Of course, I think you can break the 40 year cycles down into smaller sections also... I decided to do this in terms of decades:

1930: Swing

1940: Random music, but no significant style (dying out of Swing)

1950: beginnings of Rock & Roll/Pop Rock era

1960: ROCK & ROLL BABY!

1970:  Disco/Dance

1980: Random music, but no significant style (dying out of Disco)

1990: Pop Rock, Boy bands etc.

2000: Indie Rock/beginnings of serious D & B

?????

Now let's match it up by 40 year increments... 

1930/1970 = Dance Music

1940/1980 = No unifying style

1950/1990 = Pop Music

1960/2000 = New Original Music

Seems to work... and by this theory, in 2010 we will be entering another "Dance" era... I'm guessing this would be pointing to Drum and Bass (D&B) and other well constructed techno, which is very much on the rise right now.

I'm not sure how much merit this whole idea holds, but its interesting and who knows! maybe its even a good way of predicting what kind of music will be out there in the near future (I guess we'll have to wait until 2040 before we can start getting some good tunes in good numbers again though... that sucks...)

so... what do you all think of this idea?  possible truth or complete bullshit?  leave a comment and I'll come back to this issue next weekend.

Thanks for reading guys!