On a sightseeing tour through five decades of funk and disco.
Chromeo are always best when everything is easy. For example in “Got It Good”. For four minutes, the duo celebrates love with all its pitfalls to soft synths and subtly muted percussion beats. Some may complain, but hey, “we’ll figure it out”. Dave 1 and P-Thugg have been able to do this for 20 years: write songs that are casual in the best sense of the word, that have a groove, that take you along on nights where everyone wears glittering dancing shoes and snow-white bell-bottoms.
ADULT CONTEMPORARY follows the traditional path, and it often works out brilliantly. “Words With You,” with its Prince guitar and sharp horns, is just as fun as “Replacements.” And the little “A Cut Above” even dares to do something that they don’t necessarily stand for: a kind of gentle calm, somewhere between Metronomy and Steely Dan.
But the truth is that sometimes this record seems like it’s taking a Chromeo on a bus tour through 50 years of funk and disco. Here, look, the bass! Look, aren’t these synths STILL cool? Here, this is called head voice! So the question of whether this is art or craft is the elephant in the room. But this elephant dances pretty well.
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