REVIEWSJustice, ‘Audio Video Disco’

6

• SPIN Rating:6 of 10

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Release Date: October 24, 2011
Label: Ed Banger

With their second album, Justice break away from the niche the French duo essentially created on 2007's debut -- gritty, electro-pop bangers. Now they're trying their hand at '70s arena rock, and at times, the retromania feels both fun and authentic: See the melding of Italo-disco and singeing hair-metal guitars on"Brain-?vision," the funk-driven "Helix," and "Ohio," an ?apparently sincere tribute to Crosby, Stills & Nash. Elsewhere, Audio, Video, Disco teeters on the edge of self-mockery, not an unfamiliar position for Justice. From the repetitive guitar riffs on the football-stadium-baiting "Canon" to the group handclaps programmed into "Parade," the high-spirited nostalgia often feels too forced.