Airport

Audio Video Disco - Justice - Audio Video Disco (2011, Ed Banger)

My impatience may have gotten the better of me; I may or may not have downloaded the album leak of Justice’s upcoming second album Audio Video Disco, scheduled for release this Friday. However, after listening to it a few times, I really hope it’s not legit. That’s not to say it’s dreadful, but it’s just nowhere near the consistently fantastic album that was their debut †.

The well publicised prog-rock influence in this new album is definitely noticeable; it by no means detracts from the record, and helps differentiate it from the genre defining electro record that was †. The French duo have obviously put a lot of thought and effort into crafting a record that is different enough from their debut for critics to not lament that this is just an uncreative repeat, but so that they end up with an album that still sounds definitively Justice.

However, Audio, Video, Disco as a whole is not nearly as viscerally compelling as †. Yes, there are a couple of fantastic tracks on the album that demonstrate that the duo are still capable of great things, such as the excellent title track Audio, Video, Disco. And there aren’t really any major flops either. But there are really only a couple of tracks that really reach out and grab you. For want of a better descriptor, many of the tracks just seem quite clichéd, in a way completely contrasting their groundbreakingly fresh debut.

But hopefully it’s just a dodgy leak, and the real thing will be released in all it’s glory this Friday. Let’s hope. In the meantime, check out one of the best tracks off the second album, the title track Audio, Video, Disco.