Hyperdrama (Justice, 2024) Review

Many artists are haunted by their past work and the expectations of their fan base to replicate it over and over again. While some do manage to develop their creative vision as intended while satisfying their fans, it’s definitely not the most common outcome. Extrapolating this situation to the medium of music, Linkin Park is the first example that comes to mind, as many fans were (and some still are) in denial about their sonic shift from the nu-metal and raw energy of their first two albums, Hybrid Theory and Meteora, to the more experimental, electronic sound of A Thousand Suns and Living Things — not to mention their last album, One More Light, which moved towards the electropop spectrum. Although Justice didn’t get that much backlash, many still yearn for a second part of Cross 17 years after its release (I feel old). They seem reluctant to accept that Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé are not the same 20-somethings who got a Mac and started tinkering with GarageBand in the early 2000s. Cross was an anomaly. It was a very concrete product of the time and the context in which the French musicians found themselves. Their sound has matured and they don’t identify themselves with that visceral dance music mixed with aggressive and noisy tracks like “Waters of Nazareth” or “Stress”. However, there will always be people who complain that Justice didn’t follow the path blazed by Cross. In fact, most of the negative reviews I’ve read about Audio, Video, Disco. or Woman resort to the “it’s not like Cross” argument instead of elaborating on why they think those albums are so bad.

Fortunately, the French duo didn’t fall prey to expectations and continued to develop their sound the way they wanted to, exploring different musical landscapes influenced by the genres that made them fall in love with music. Audio, Video, Disco. was a love letter to the classic rock of the 70s, while Woman explored a more mature sound with a wide range of influences of the 80s, from classic disco and funk to pop reminiscent of ABBA. 8 years after the release of Woman, Hyperdrama sets the distance between Cross even further by going in the opposite direction of the electro-house beats of their debut. It sounds like an evolution of Woman, embracing synthwave soundscapes with traces of synth funk, nu-disco and R&B, brought by the vocals of featured artists such as Connan Mockasin, Miguel or Thundercat.

The opener “Neverender” features Kevin Parker from Tame Impala (did you know it’s just one guy?). It’s a groovy and synthpop tune that sounds more like a Justice remix of a Tame Impala song from the The Slow Rush era. Although the other song featuring Kevin Parker, “One Night/All Night”, sounds more like a Justice song, it feels too similar and even redundant to “Neverender”, which I much prefer. The follow-up, “Generator”, is an instrumental darksynth track with industrial overtones that borrows too much influence from fellow countryman Carpenter Brut. While it’s an interesting piece on its own, it spoils the moody vibe created by the opener and the album as a whole. As a matter of fact, it reflects a common denominator of my criticism of Justice’s studio albums, which is their flow. Each one manages to create a unique atmosphere that is ruined by tracks that feel out of place in the context of the albums. A good replacement for “Generator” would be “Afterimage”, which sounds like a reimagined version of it with the soft vocals of RIMON and a more appropriate instrumental given the atmosphere of Hyperdrama. Then comes “Dear Alan”, where “Dear” refers to the title of the song sampled (“Dear Brian” by Chris Rainbow), and “Alan” is most likely a tribute to the French electronic musician Alan Braxe, famous for being part of the trio Stardust, who composed one of the most successful French house songs of all time: “Music Sounds Better With You”. It reminds me of Siriusmo, in a good way, and features a groovy bassline with a seemingly linear progression that changes its flow towards the second half of the song, including an 8-bit melody that makes the track decompose into fragments. It’s probably the most interesting passage on the whole album.

The last song of the first half is “Incognito”, which doesn’t add anything particularly exciting to stand out from the rest. It’s another groovy and synthy instrumental track with a vocal sample that repeats throughout the song with very little progression. It’s followed by “Mannequin Love” featuring The Flints, which further enhances the cinematic and spacey atmosphere evoked by the album through the combination of instrumental and vocals. “Moonlight Rendez-vous” is a surprisingly jazzy interlude with a gorgeous saxophone that evokes a romantic and intimate sound. It sounds luxurious, if that makes sense, and doesn’t detract the development of the record. It’s definitely one of the rarest tunes in their entire discography, even including their live recordings. Crazy to think that they went from sampling Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” on A Cross the Universe in 2008 to this kind of musical texture in 2024.

“Explorer” is a great continuation of the vibe created by “Moonlight Rendez-vous”. It features a spoken word fragment by New Zealand psychedelic funk musician Connan Mockasin that blends interestingly with the instrumental. It is succeeded by a sequence of three songs, which I like to think of as one because of their coherence, joined by the interlude “Harpy Dream”. The first one, “Muscle Memory”, reminds me of “Chorus” from Woman but with a build-up structure that leads to “Harpy Dream”, culminating and intersecting with the highlight of Hyperdrama and one of my favorite Justice vocal tracks: “Saturnine”. Miguel delivers the best vocal performance of the album along with one of the catchiest songs of the year. Despite how much I enjoy it, its progression is almost minimal, with only a bridge in the middle that connects the first chorus with the second. The final song, “The End”, closes the album with a Thundercat vocal feature. It starts with a dark repetitive sound that builds into the characteristic synthy and groovy sound of this record. It feels like the end credits of the space movie atmosphere that Justice manages to create in 49 minutes.

Although Hyperdrama is a decent effort from Xavier and Gaspar, it sounds too one-dimensional and lacks ambition. They don’t get to fully explore and develop the more interesting sound that seems to be contained in those groovy basslines and synths. They play it safe most of the time, resulting in an album that could very well be played in an H&M store, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is definitely more potential in it. Some tracks feel like demos to be further fleshed out on future iterations, which, as is Justice’s wont, they will do in their live set for this record. It’s like they released the studio albums to get people ready for the ultimate version live. I have no doubt that the same will happen with Hyperdrama, which makes me even more impatient to see them live for the first time.

If this is your first Justice album, I encourage you to listen to Woman Worldwide to get a complete picture of their discography. Also check out the beloved Cross and the Planisphère EP, which is my favorite work of the duo to date and one of my favorite EPs of all time. Nothing less than a classic.