Midnight Juggernauts reviewed
Midnight Juggernauts
Dystopia
(Astralwerks)
Australia’s Midnight Juggernauts thump thump thump their French disco tastes the way a XXX-swilling, rugby-loving national should.
Making electronic pop comparisons to Air’s Moon Safari is about as academic as using the term “Beatlesesque,” and at least the Fabs have had half a century to marinate. Yet here are Daniel Stricker and Vincent and Andy Juggernaut, watching the stars with Kelly and when they aren’t, they high-five their record label once again by expressing Bowie via The Beta Band on the title track. For all its thick-skulled, thieving audacity, however, Dystopia never ceases to be fun. The numbing pulse of “Ending Of An Era” and “Into The Galaxy” are so unavoidable it’s tempting to call them rock songs — obviously in that Daft Punk/arena-dance posturing. Things turn a little iffy when their rhymes border on Flight Of The Conchords wordplay (“Tombstone” is particularly egregious), but if we start harping on dance music for being silly, why then we’ve lost the plot.
— Steve Forstneger
