You Belong
Forget disco for a second. The most significant thing about the debut album from New York’s Hercules and Love Affair has less to do with revival than arrival– that of a compelling new voice in American dance music. Not Antony Hegarty’s, of Antony and the Johnsons, even though his pipes are an integral part of Hercules’ aesthetic, but Andrew Butler, a twentysomething resident of New York who has made one of 2008’s great albums, and one of the best longplayers from DFA. (DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy surely deserves some of the credit as well, as the album’s co-producer and the programmer behind most of the record’s beats.) Butler got his start writing music for art projects in college– “like a remake of Gino Soccio’s ‘Runaway’ done in the style of Kraftwerk,” he told Fact magazine– but Hercules and Love Affair’s music doesn’t require Fischerspooner-type theatrics. This debut album is a self-contained, self-assured, 10-song set that runs vintage styles through a restless compositional imagination to create something joyfully, startlingly unique.While more than half of the album’s tracks would easily work on forward-thinking dance floors– “Hercules’ Theme”, “You Belong”, “Athene”, “Blind”, “This Is My Love”, “Raise Me Up”, and “True False, Fake Real” all cruise comfortably between 110 and 120 bpm– what really shines is the songwriting. The album brims with hooks, choruses, bridges, strange twists, and turns.
Put some fire on the dancefloor!
Tags: DFA, Disco, Hercules and Love Affair
