Album Reviews: Justice, St. Vincent, Cindy Lee

Justice – Hyperdrama
Paris, France

After nearly a decade away from their albums, Justice hasn’t lost their polish, but simply feel like they’re missing a little punch. While this album may prove itself glorious for their next tour, on headphones it’s a lushly produced but sometimes anticlimactic return for one of the genre’s finest acts. The stomping drive of “Neverender” is one of these moments, highlighting Kevin Parker as much as themselves, and staying bizarrely understated for a band known for dance bangers. That said, the strong singles do a lot to cement their foothold as artists in creating and establishing some of the most satisfying blends of tones on the modern pop landscape. A true melodic sequel to their classic “Genesis,” “Generator” is like a dark, mechanized part two, bringing the most vicious and singular tones of the record. Though it lacks that innate slap and pop of their usual singles, “One Night/All Night” lives on such glossy and texture-rich highs that you’ll still feel a rush. “Incognito” itself drifts away from its core powerhouse drive, but her so many strong, intense moments that it will surely become a wealth of chopped-up highlights for their live shows.

Corridor – Jump Cut (Single)
Montreal

Always great for an angular riff or twisted melody, Corridor roars out with psychedelia for days on “Jump Cut.” There’s a sprawling rush to the track’s relentless layered guitars, creating a kind of trippy sensation while listening. They don’t linger here for long though, letting the synths take a kind of flying and fluttering pace in parts, nearing a full take off into a wholly new song at times. The whole blitz of the song’s endless stream of licks results in a truly trance-like experience, that can easily evoke visuals for the right listener. And their collage and mash-up-heavy video by Winston Hacking and Philippe Tardif is the perfect accompaniment, especially given the inherent layers of Devo in the band’s bones.

St. Vincent – All Born Screaming
Tulsa, OK/Dallas, TX

Annie Clark has transformed a lot over the years, but her latest record is a seismic shift compared to all the others. While you could easily write an entire article trying to explore every fascinating influence on the record, it’s just as dazzling hearing Clark combine all these ingredients without ever losing her own iconography in the process. Clark evokes Trent Reznor on the industrial charge of “Broken Man,” with the track expanding more through its quiet-loud explosiveness and lush percussive detail than melodic complexities. “Flea” delivers intoxicating notes from the start between a slinking bass and wrecking ball-like fuzz drop, but it makes things really interesting through the contrast of Clark’s unnervingly excited vocals and some atypical drum work from all-timer Dave Grohl. The cinematic and particularly Bond theme energy of “Violent Times” takes you into a dreamy haze full of shimmering guitars, and a menacing swirl of strings and brass that perfectly capture the danger at focus here. Going from California jam rock to experimental dives to a digitized prog finale, “All Born Screaming” is an immensely theatrical finale that proves Clark’s talent and knack for grandeur as an artist, as she’s able to harness each end of the song into a finer whole.

Xana – Monster (Single)
Vancouver

Wasting no time setting off on her synth-pop charge, Xana is fierce and ready to fight on “Monster.” Despite shooting down the bad things people say about her, Xana cleverly reflects the harsh words and more tender reality by having all the light pianos and synth notes gain a growling edge through feedback and distortion. But rather than denying anything, Xana admits to everything, and accepts what she’s done and most importantly, who she is. As this part of the story grows, so too does the size and wail of the production, as the monster builds but also is shown to be more human at every turn.

Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee
Calgary, Alberta

With its already unusual release route (YouTube and GeoCities) for a 2024 release, there was definitely an air of mystery to Cindy Lee’s latest release. Through an immersive and often brooding approach to its songs, this album brings you into a whole sonic world, which can

The slow-burn and building charge of “Diamond Jubilee” establishes a dusty, Western charm to the record, filled to the brim with 70’s aesthetics and a melodic confidence to build its world in time, and let the overall arrangements become the character. As you get lost down a lo-fi well, “Baby Blue” has a retro, dreamy drip to its sound, toying with a romantic point of view while the past appears to slowly disintegrate in front of you. In its brief time, “Olive Drab” is an effortlessly funky affair with strings cutting and kicking in like few strings do on records, and its riff never ceases to bring a great heat to this song that makes it fly over and over again. The production moves into more ambitious territory with the playful work on “Stone Faces,” that mixes what at first feels like a vintage pop hit with a lot of unusual tonal tweaking, and slowly becomes something transcendent and all its own.