REVIEW: CHROMEO – BUSINESS CASUAL

Chromeo
Business Casual
Backyard Recordings

Listening to Chromeo’s third and newest album sound very much like, well like a Chromeo album. Following up the success of 2007’s Fancy Footwork the duo have decided not to venture off on a new tangent, instead mining the falsetto disco funk that made their last album such an essential release.

And whilst ‘Business Casual’ may not be exactly experimental, the genre it so closely apes- the under looked cross-over of disco, electro-funk and blue eyed soul, has so much to offer it’s hard to begrudge them.

It’s difficult to decide whether Chromeo represent a genuine continuation of the electronic disco legacy created by such luminaries as Georgio Moroder, or are in fact just a well produced ironic piss-take. But either way Business Casual with its high end production skills, and sophisticated song writing is a great way to lose a few hours.

Opening track the incessantly funky Hot Mess, sees the duo doing what they do best, jamming analogue synth lines and falsetto vocals for a feel-good 80’s party jam. If you want the Chromeo you know and love, this is the ideal introduction to the album, never veering to far from formula. And it’s the same formula that applies across the rest brief but enjoyable album, I’m Not Contagious, features another slice of unabashed retro-goodness with hooks that seem to go on for days.

But just as the duo start to blend out into retro blandness Night By Night crops up to offer up some of the guitar heroics of the band’s live show, and Don’t Turn The Lights On takes the whole thing to the bedroom with a wide-eyed seduction that’s defies resistance.

Don’t buy this expecting a ‘difficult’ change if direction, but if you were captivated by the good time disco goodness of Fancy Footwork, Business Casual is guaranteed not to disappoint.

Toby Hemming