ALBUM REVIEWS
Bob Vylan have cemented themselves as one of punk’s most vital voices. Their last album, 2022’s ‘Bob Vylan Presents: The Price Of Life’, hit the Top 20 on the album charts and in that same year, the duo won the first-ever MOBO for Best Alternative Act. And they’ve done it all while remaining independent, releasing music on their own label, Ghost Theatre. The temptation could have been to dull the edges but, thankfully, Bob Vylan aren’t entertaining the idea of backing down.
Their latest record ‘Humble As The Sun’ broadens the duo’s musical scope, blending punk, hip-hop, rock, grime, rap, trap, drum and bass and electronic influences. Similarly, the lyrics span a range of topics from economic disparity (‘Hunger Games’) to toxic masculinity (‘He’s A Man’). The title track takes aim at exploitation in the music industry: “Now watch me as I fight back / For every reggae artist that never got their rights back / That died broke and hungry on the island of Jamaica / While someone at Island Records made a killing off the right tracks.”
Elsewhere, the lyrics show off their trademark sense of humour. “I was a victim of one crime / Was it a gun crime? / No. Bob Vylan got robbed for the Mercury!” vocalist Bobby Vylan raps on ‘Reign.’ But the album’s lyrical strength comes from the duo’s ability to cover vast ground on each song, drawing links between different issues, the layered references and clever wordplay rewarding multiple listens. ‘Reign’, for example, tackles the reality of the UK today, discussing colonisation, police brutality, racism and wealth inequality.‘Humble As The Sun’ has more than a few surprises: the album opens with piano and organ and ‘Hunger Games’, with its raucous riffs, ends in a series of positive affirmations over a drum and bass beat: “Be proud, be open / Be loud, be hopeful / Be healthy, be happy / Be kind to yourself.”
That variety keeps things interesting, but it also allows the duo to flex their musical muscles, and they’ve traded in some of their previous blistering punk for a more relaxed pace on certain tracks, but without sacrificing any intensity. The urgency comes through in other ways: ‘Get Yourself a Gun’’s electrifying riffs contrast Bobby’s restrained delivery of the chorus, while ‘Reign’ takes a darker turn musically and lyrically. ‘Makes Me Violent’’s chilled-out vocals and down-tempo melody add a level of irony as it critiques the hypocrisy of a country that perpetuates violence while warning people off it.
But those contrasts speak to the spirit of the album: perseverance in the face of hardship. Rousing album closer ‘I’m Still Here’ taps into the fire of Bob Vylan’s other releases, as Bobby sings, “I survived / I survived / I survived!” It’s a testament to resilience, but also to the band’s willingness to grow and to challenge themselves. It’s clear that no matter where they go, audiences will be listening.
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.
