Review Summary: Like Daft Punk and The Strokes having hip, metrosexual babies.
This record is not life-changing.
This record is not deep.
This record is damn good fun.
Ratatat don't write songs, they write fun little ideas that transform into earworms.
A quick flick through the duo's previous records shows that 'Magnifique' doesn't reinvent their own wheel, let alone challenge elsewhere on the electronica spectrum, but one doesn't get the feeling that's the intention of this album.
Combining tight, tinny, squealing leads and stomping, simplistic, almost glam-dance percussion, the vast majority of the tracks on offer here glide and bounce, staying just interesting enough to transcend pleasant background music.
Tracks like 'Primetime' and 'Abrasive' are frankly akin to melting a Brian May solo over the top of a Daft Punk instrumental.
The main criticism of this album may come in that plain lack of variance in the tracks - if the lead singles 'Cream on Chrome' and the aforementioned 'Abrasive' don't do much for you, this album as a whole assuredly won't.
And there's something frustrating in this, as when they do drop the odd curveball, such as the I-Monster-esque dreamy zombie plod of 'Drift', or the AIR-meets-Beatles bliss of 'I Will Return' - the feeling lingers that they're capable of painting from a much wider palette.
But honestly, when the bulk of the tracks on show are just so damn danceable, who cares about depth?
