Justice are a couple of super-suave rock star analogues. Leathers and aviators, yes, but with a very Parisian insouciance. Their music is the same. It has a rocker-friendly je-ne-sais-quoi, but air-brushed with the glitzy sci-fi futurism one might expect from a couple of guys whose origins lie in design. Their new album, their fourth and first in a leisurely eight years, retains their usual slightly-gnarly-but-smartly-turned-out vibe, but reaches towards new and entertaining musical directions.
Justice blew up with Noughties monster remix “We Are Your Friends”, then rode the proto-EDM wave, with parent label Ed Banger Records, of artists and DJs who presented electronic dance music, not as a rave, but as a show, as the new rock’n’roll. The Americans, especially, couldn’t get enough of them, with their stacks of Marshall amps and heavy metal-electro debut album, Cross.
Hyperdrama contains immediate whoppers, notably the Nineties rave hoover apocalypse of “Generator”, an equivalent to The Prodigy’s “Omen”, and the prog-funk of “Saturnine”, a song featuring vocals from US R&B kingpin Miguel that comes in somewhere between Pharrell Wiliams and Trevor Horn-produced Yes, albeit with bonus elevator bell pings.
Elsewhere they offer up sax-led space-out (“Moonlight Rendez-Vous”), a Giorgio Moroder film theme-ish roller (“Explorer” featuring Connan Mockasin) and lighters-in-the-air stadium hyperpop (“The End”, featuring Thundercat), but the default setting is steroid disco. Late period Daft Punk’s yacht-rock tendencies are deep-dipped in sterner, crunchier synths and percussion, whether on the poppy, falsetto “Neverender”, featuring Tame Impala, or the more battering “Incognito”.
Having been off-radar for a few years, Justice surfaced to promote this album. They remain breezily Gallic rock’n’roll sophisticates, still with more than enough musical bang-juice in the tank to make Hyperdrama an enjoyable ear romp that reaches the feet.
Below: Watch the video for "One Night/All Night" by Justice featuring Tame Impala