Chromeo: Business Casual

By Michael Lopez Tue., Sep. 14 2010 at 8:42 AM

Categories: Review Roundup

Pin It

She'a a bountiful lady, that Tuesday September 14. With plentiful new music from most every genre, today is a cornucopia of musical offerings, a rare instance where picking one album is actually somewhat difficult -- lord knows that wasn't a problem on July 20.

I digress -- today marks the third album from Quebecois dance/funk duo Chromeo, Business Casual. The hotly anticipated third offering finds the gang working with a new producer, Philippe Zdar -- one half of Cassius and the producer behind Phoenix's commercially (literally) bankable Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. What do the guys do for an encore, considering many believe 2007's Fancy Footwork to be their best effort? Keep things funky, for one, as well as injecting their trademark quirkiness and affability into the album's ten tracks.

What the rest of the critics are saying:

Express Night Out: "What keeps the disc's sensual lyrics so danceable is the complex instrumentation, a progression from the barebones synths that drove "She's in Control" and "Fancy Footwork." A guitar solo and tribal rhythms on "Night by Night" add throbbing ferocity, and a funky feel spruces up the ballad "Don't Turn the Lights On." (It doesn't hurt that Dave 1 sounds a bit like Morrissey when he lowers his voice a few notches for that track.)"

Spin: "After sharing a festival stage with plastic-soul godhead Daryl Hall, what's a pair of funked-up '80s electro-pop replicants to do? If your answer involves more talk box, synth, sax, "Eye of the Tiger" guitar soloing, and feathery lover-boy vocal tics, well, Québécois crate-diggers Dave 1 and P-Thugg can go for that."

Urb: "Already cool are throbby Internet singles "Night By Night" and "Don't Turn The Lights On," the former a spazzy, strobelight stealer, the latter a tinsel-hooked slowburner. Solange Knowles, newly metamorphosized dance-pop diva, shows up on "When The Night Falls," sounding like a Emotions-era Mariah Carey and "J'ai claque la porte" plays much more subdued and sophisticated than anything Chromeo's ever put out."

Entertainment Weekly: "On Business Casual they remain adept students of the Hall & Oates school of hooks, which they surround with gleaming synth grooves and robotic talkbox solos that recall '80s funk masters like Zapp & Roger. Are they kidding or paying serious homage? Singer Dave 1's wry pickup lines suggest the former, but it's impossible to say for sure."

Business Casual is out now via Atlantic. Please to enjoy the entrancing video for "Don't Turn the Lights On:"

Chromeo - Don't Turn The Lights On from Modular People on Vimeo.

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.