ALBUM REVIEWS
In the opening episode of Hope On The Street, J-hope’s new docuseries dedicated to street dance, he describes himself as being in a reflective mood ahead of his military service. “What did I like in the past? What was my mindset when I debuted and performed on stage? What is it that made me who I am today?” he asked himself, and his conclusions always came back to one thing: “If I didn’t have dance, I wouldn’t be where I am right now.”
So large does dance loom in the BTS rapper’s life that his love and talent for it is often one of the first things you learn about him when you first start digging into the boyband’s story. He got his start doing street dance as a kid in his hometown of Gwangju and joined local dance crew Neuron before successfully entering Big Hit as a trainee. His lifelong passion has served him well, making his performances – whether with BTS or solo – a joy to watch.
That unbreakable bond with dance fills ‘Hope On The Street’, the six-track soundtrack album for his docuseries. Yes, each song on the record is something that could easily be danced to, but the connection runs deeper than that. It’s poured into not just the beats and genres used here but in the lyrics too. “Just dance right now,” goes the funk snap of ‘I Wonder’, a collaboration between J-hope and his BTS bandmate Jungkook. On the Benny Blanco and Nile Rodgers-assisted ‘Lock/unlock’, he uses dance terms like “control”, “break”, and “step” to subtly tie the purpose of this album together with the stories he’s telling.
Those stories are key here, taking this from mere soundtrack to personal missive. Across the record, we’re taken into J-hope’s mindset and memories as he pays tribute to his roots and looks toward what might be on the horizon for him. ‘Neuron’, the old-school hip-hop gem that closes the album, tackles both, nodding to his old dance crew and to a fresh start as he spells out “Neuron […] new run”. The chorus that vows to “never ever give up” is a bright and encouraging call to push ahead, while its choice of legendary guest stars – Dynamic Duo’s Gaeko and MFBTY’s yoonmirae – point to sources of inspiration from J-hope’s youth.
Much like the docuseries it accompanies, ‘Hope On The Street’ takes something of a global approach. You can feel that in the genres it runs through and the collaborators it collects. On album highlight ‘I Don’t Know’, that attitude grows even stronger. It opens with LE SSERAFIM’s Huh Yunjin narrating the intro in French before she and J-hope swap verses that answer each other in English and Korean. “Yes, we’re on the edge / Trying to figure out what’s really on your mind,” Yunjin sings; minutes later, her host replies: “Yes, we’re on the edge / It’s true that I’ve been caught up in my mind.”
As well as brand-new songs, there are two updated takes on familiar material here. The album begins with a solo version of J-hope’s J.Cole collaboration ‘On The Street’, boasting a new verse in which the BTS rapper’s voice feels rawer than ever, and he asks the ever-relatable question: “What the hell is time?” ‘Jack In The Box’’s ‘What if…’ gets a new dance mix courtesy of Jinbo The SuperFreak, ramping up the electricity in the track and making its beat more pronounced.
Back in 2022, J-hope made a bold statement from the musical side of his creativity with his solo debut album. Here, he returns with almost as strong a vision but in ode to the rhythms and worlds that have moved him from Gwangju dreamer to global superstar. ‘Hope On The Street’ is bright and brilliant and a tantalising reminder of its creator’s multi-faceted talents.
ALBUM REVIEWS
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.
