REVIEW: Justice – Hyperdrama

Eras collide on the new Justice (aka Zyoosteece) album Hypderdrama. An apt title for an act who have never shied away from sounds that could be called dramatic, could be prefixed with ‘hyper-’, or could indeed be both.

But there’s a softer side here too as Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay document their musical evolution. The unmistakably French electro-rock Justice sounds of the the late 00s, following in the tradition of Cassius and Daft Punk before them (both of whom will be getting several mentions in this review), meets the chilled and expansive 2010s sound of Tame Impala, a guest and collaborator featuring heavily on this album.

 

For years I have imagined that if I ever had the need for walk-in/entrance music, I would choose a track from Justice’s 2007 debut album. ‘Incognito’ allows this fantasy to be updated and continue into 2024.

‘Incognito’ is also the point where the different sides of this album collide – the serene synths of the Tame Impala guest spots smash headlong into Justice’s brutal beats that appear, full throttle, out of nowhere. This track has huge energy and, strangely for Justice, is at odds with rest of the album in how uptempo it is.

Hyperdrama makes me feel both young and old at the same time. It’s unmistakably a Justice album, almost in spite of the expanded sonic palette provided by the guests. It has the same DNA as the first album running through it from the Daft Punk adjacent bass solo and Mussorgsky like strings of ‘Generator’, to the disjointed crashing and falling polyphony of ‘Muscle Memory’.

 

But it was never the softer side that got me loving Justice in the first place. ‘One Night All Night’ is a solid lead single from the album, but that’s all it is. Not all guest spots are successful. Connan Mockasin’s voiceovers add little, and even the Tame Impala vocals, while providing a more popular appeal over the less brutal tracks, do seem like a light compromise on the type of tracks where Justice are at their best.

Justice remind me of the trashy dancefloors of that time back in 2007 when I first heard their music. The smooth vocals of Miguel spend too much time competing with this memory in my mind for me to be able to enjoy ‘Saturnine’, despite the indie/electro/French house/disco guitar harmonies pioneered by Cassius around the same time.

 

And this, I think, lies at the heart of my ultimate indifference to the album as a whole. Not that I can’t separate the old and the new, but more that I want, well, more from it. It doesn’t inspire me in the same way, and while I appreciate this is down to my own expectations not being met, Hyperdrama all too easily falls into the background of my day, only really standing out at its most exciting moments, like ‘Incognito’. It felt to me that Justice were once on the cutting edge. But now bringing out Tame Impala and Thundercat features on your album in 2024, seems at least a decade behind the times.

I’ll return to the word ‘solid’. There’s little wrong with this album and I’m sure fans will find plenty here to engage with. But when I just don’t connect in the same way as I once did, solid is all it will be for me.