Justice – ‘Hyperdrama’ review: a blockbuster return from dominant dance duo

23 April, 2024

Justice

It will not shock you that, on an album appropriately titled ‘Hyperdrama’, Justice have absolutely put their laces through it. The French duo – made up of Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé – have surely sensed an opportunity with their first album in eight years, their brand of maximalist electronic thumpers sounds increasingly enticing in the post-whisper pop sphere, and having won fans in soon-to-be collaborator The Weeknd. There’s also the curious wrinkle of this being their first album since countrymen Daft Punk called it quits in 2021; comparisons are understandable – the duos are entwined by their Ed Banger label boss Busy P (who once managed The Robots) – but simplistic. Where Daft Punk made music for the heart and head, Justice’s rock-influenced imagery and abrasive material were more about taking one to the gut. This is their chance to put clear daylight between the two and, goodness me, have they taken it.

Speaking to NME in 2023, Busy P gave a ringing endorsement – well, he would – and said that ‘Hyperdrama’ gave him “goosebumps” and compared it to their 2007 debut ‘Cross’. Then came the announcement of starry guests: Tame Impala, Thundercat, Miguel. The material got its first live airing over the past fortnight at Coachella with a raved-about new stage production. The final teasers from de Rosnay are typically oblique: “A record is not meant to be fully understandable the first time you listen to it,” he recently told The New York Times.

‘Hyperdrama’ is a blockbuster release that meets the hype: flashy, over the top and keen to make a spectacle. It’s not a course correction as such, but smartly moves away from the proggier climes of 2011’s ‘Audio Video Disco’ and 2016’s sometimes-dull ‘Woman’. The band have mentioned the influence of gabber – a Dutch subgenre of hardcore techno – on their new material, but it mainly sounds like they’ve reconciled with the the sound of their debut, inviting pop tendencies to enter their own brutal world and not the other way around.

It’s evident on the record’s first two singles, the yin and yang of ‘One Night / All Night’ starring Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker on vocals, and the pummelling metallic chrome of ‘Generator’. While the aforementioned makes the most of a typically aloof but catchy Parker melody by pairing it with a pounding beat, ‘Generator’ is the finest track on the record, a track so deliciously stuffed with melodic switch-ups and garish production that it’s almost arrogant in displaying their capability. It’s the hardest studio recording they’ve release since cult favourite ‘Planisphère’, a 17-minute long bonus track from ‘Audio Video Disco’; to top it off, ‘Generator’’s music video features the images two cyborgs ripping the flesh of each other in the throes of passion. Mon dieu!

The remainder of ‘Hyperdrama’ follows suit, deftly weaving between vocal collaborators and pop structures. For every ‘Saturnine’, a slinky R&B jam featuring Miguel, there’s ‘Dear Alan’ which shows flashes of the French-touch sound they dabbled with in their early days. The Flints – an emerging duo from Manchester – shine on ‘Mannequin Love’ and Eritrean-born, Amsterdam-raised Rimon justifies the decision to bring in new vocalists on this record, occasionally a weak-point of ‘AVD’ and ‘Woman’. The song suite between ‘Moonlight Rendezvous’, featuring a saucy sax solo, and ‘Saturnine’ flows spectacularly.

Where those two past albums made up ground in the live space – as heard on 2013’s ‘Access All Arenas’ and 2018’s Grammy-winning ‘Woman Worldwide’ – their fourth album leaves nothing on the table. Viewers of their two Coachella sets will notice how the songs are already evolving and morphing into something gnarlier, but this studio version is equally realised and thrilling.

‘Hyperdrama’ is the type of release that the dance space – if you could even slot Justice in there – seldom sees. They duo show a passionate reverence for the album format, from the artwork that took over 18 months to create to the songs that boast both style and substance. It’s one of 2024’s most engrossing listening experiences.