Man, it’s a good thing you’re here. Listen, we need to talk. I’ve been looking at your friends at those websites, and those things they’re doing, and I’ve come to a conclusion: They’re trying to hurt you. I know, I know you thought they were your friends. Would friends say such heinous shit about one of the best records of the year? They would if they were trying to keep you from being happy.
“Audio, Video, Disco” (henceforth AVD) is being treated to some really unfair reviews and terrible projection. It’s frankly scared me a little bit, because the message being sent is very much about the importance of positioning. A large amount of the reviews center around the differences between AVD and Cross. How Cross was this amazing, dark French Touch monolith, and how AVD is them trying to make a progressive rock record.
Stupid. If anything, this demonstrates a HUGE misunderstanding of Cross and the things it did right. Sure, if you were into Daft Punk, it was great to have a record seemingly on the level of their work. It’s just navelgazing at that point, though, thinking about how the record makes you feel in regards to how you deal with dance music. Justice has spelled this out as explicitly as they can, in interviews and in production, but I guess it needs to be restated.
Justice is about unification. Under a reclaimed crucifix, Justice wants to bring people together with energy. And when you’re talking about divides in the music community, the one between Dance and Rock is the most topical. The rap-rock thing collapsed under itself, and rightly so. But strong rock music envokes dancing, and strong dance music can fuck with your organs just like rock.
Justice is trying to populate that middle ground. Cross was reaching out to the rock kids from the dance side. AVD is reaching out to dance kids from the rock side.
As much as Cross was baptized (hah!) in the waters of the wake of Daft Punk, AVD submerges itself in the flourishes of the rock identity. Maybe this is why people wince (andrew) when they hear the record, because it’s a reminder of the perception rock is still yet to escape, of the major chords and phallic posturing. AVD’s bravery isn’t in any kind of “style shift,” because it’s the same style. It’s in accepting all of the ugly yuppie history of rock, and saying “that’s just as much me as the best of me.”
Where Justice succeeds is in the smaller flourishes in the album that inform that it’s still Justice: how the drum samples are mastered, the loving use of gigantic chords, and that same energy that’s caught the ears of the rock kids. The dichotomy has been reversed, and now Justice has aimed their big rock heart at electronic lovers. Yeah, it’s scary to be somewhere new like this middle ground they’ve forged, but now we’ve both got a way in, and their assurance.
“Trust In Us,” embedded on the sand.
WINNER: John
WHY: Because I am apparently smarter than people that get paid to write about music.
Fermata over Whole Rest 