Well, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
While injecting prog-rock instrumentation into electronic dance music (Justice specializes in house) isnt entirely novel, its definitely better when Kanye West cuts it, screws it, then raps over it, as he did on last years My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
Incorporating prog meant that AVD had a lot of turntable potential, especially considering the acrobatics performed on (check Let There Be Light to see what I mean). Too bad Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay decided to revisit their Metallica cover-band days, thereby creating some serious problems, the chief one being that its simply not as fun or danceable as their debut. Lets compare.
Bold and aggressive, opened with the orchestra-styled Genesis, a track that drew the listener in with its careful pacing, sonic drops and highs, and most importantly, a rigid, dirty house beat that, between the intro and the outro, plowed right through the audience and settled itself down in the middle of the dance floor. With AVDs Horsepower, we have an intro driven by guitar chops and a considerably less dynamic beat, ostensibly to show off the splotchy instrumentation. It gives way into Civilzation, the first single, which relies too heavily on the repetition of spacey, anthemic words (Beating of a million drums / The fire of a million guns / The mother of a million sons / Civilization) without creating any sort of dramatic tension.
It just sounds like rote rock music, especially when you compare it with that always-buzzing discordant synthesizer sound that broke against more pleasant sonic textures all over , especially on standouts Waters of Nazareth and Phantom. It was the album's hallmark sound, but with AVD, its nowhere to be found, replaced by half-baked concept-album lyrics and stagnating orchestral disco.
Then comes Ohio, a total momentum killer, in place of s dirty, dirty builder-upper Let There Be Light. OnnOn plods along kinda like Led Zeppelins Kashmir, but without the hypnotic desert lyrics and Robert Plants mournful wailing, it just falls on its face, flatlining with a mid-song flute solo. Yes, a flute solo. On an Ed Banger record.
New Lands is a basically a slowed-down Wont Get Fooled Again rip-off and closer Audio, Video, Disco doesnt deliver, either. Its more of the boring same with a static beat, airy singing and a snooze-worthy breakdown.
It sounds to me as if the guys set their sights too high, like theyre stocking up on gigantic anthems to head out on a tour to outdo Daft Punks historic 2006-2007 campaign. My advice: Ditch the guitars and get back to the turntables, boys. And grab some catchy samples and record a sequel to D.A.N.C.E. while youre at it.