Hyperdrama - Justice

Justice stand tall and aim their French-house-poisoned dart high, flying it straight and true into the very heart of modern pop.

One of the biggest French house outfits in the modern electronic landscape, Justice have always been known for their unabashedly grimy take on their club-influenced genre. But for "Hyperdrama", they finally turn to face pop music, and decide that they can do better. And then they did. They did do better. By quite a margin. "Hyperdrama" is a brilliant fusion of funk instrumentation, dreamy pop vocals, and Justice's signature take on French house. Filled with infectious lyrical hooks — and production hooks, for that matter, in some addictive leads and synthwork — "Hyperdrama" is memorable by any standard, hosting an array of earworm vocals and earworm house production, whether that be in the vocal-driven cuts or the instrumental ones. Both sides of the coin are equally good from Justice, and they manage to keep a 50 minute tracklist engaging enough to allow practically every single track to have its say in the grand scheme of the project, from the intensely industrial "Generator" to the swaggering sax of "Moonlight Rendez-vous" to the floaty vocal of "Afterimage" — how could I forget the vocals? Tame Impala's features bring his trademark aloofness to the first half of this record for two of the most prominent tracks of the record, but it's difficult to give him all the credit in that regard, especially after all the other vocal features — including acts like The Flints or Connan Mockasin — manage to match or otherwise supplement the tracklist as much as he does. It's an all-round very strong performance from every element Justice employs, and they themselves are no slouches either. Strong basslines and compelling house beatwork over some bright synth runs are what Justice have come to be known and loved for, but even with their grimier edge taken off "Hyperdrama" to make way for warmer, more emotive production, Justice keep the production high-quality.

I find it very difficult to find any actual faults with this record. Perhaps Justice played it a little safe — though it's hard to make that claim with tracks like "Explorer" or "Generator" thrown into the mix — or perhaps it's not quite engaging enough — though, again, hard to make that claim — but "Hyperdrama" is by every metric a great record.