Justice – “Cross”

Right, let’s get this out the way straight up front. Yes, they sound like Daft Punk. They sound a lot like Daft Punk. But they are also clearly not Daft Punk, because Daft Punk’s last album was, well, a bit rubbish, whereas this is probably the best album of the year so far. It’s the best album Daft Punk never made.

Describing Justice’s sound invariably requires use of phrases like “if robots made music” and “the sound of a factory, in the future, set to a drumbeat” and “heavy metal disco funk music from the future”. It’s dirty and noisy and loud and funky and designed from the ground up to make you grin from ear-to-ear and fight an overwhelming urge to get up out of your chair and dance around like a big spazz.

Okay, it’s not perfect – “The Party”, featuring guest vocals from labelmate Uffie, is a bit of a letdown, mainly, in fact, because of said guest vocals – Uffie’s talking-chav stylings don’t really mesh terribly well with Justice’s backing and for me the track would work better without them.

But that aside, this is easily the finest dance album of recent years, and if this isn’t in every top-ten at the end of the year, I’ll eat my infamous bread-shoes, again. You need this album in your life.

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