Putting the Fun in Electrofunk (Fancy Footwork - Chromeo)

Member Name: rleigh

Product:	Fancy Footwork - Chromeo
Date:	11/06/08 (42 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Energetic album, full of fun and energy.

Disadvantages: The music is incredibly repetitive, a couple of tracks are more than a little irritating.

Chromeo is an electrofunk duo from New York City. The music created by this pair is an energetic dance sound, vocals are laced excellently over a funky backing of guitar, keyboard, and synth. The music is fun and greatly entertaining, albeit quite repetitive. The problem with this 'Fancy Footwork' album is that sometimes in the tracks the same beats are looped over and over to absolute irritation, at the start of each track the music sounds superb but before long you find yourself wanting for it all to come to an end.

With each track here Chromeo put across their funky electro flavours, the music possesses great energy and there is no denying that this duo are talented at what they do. Each track has something slightly different to offer, the music is entertaining but the tracks are at times a little too long. Some of the tracks are four or five minutes long, in these cases the looped music is not particularly effective as before the tracks come to a close the music becomes greatly irritating. It is when the tracks are around the three minute mark that the music of Chromeo is at its best; three minutes is just the right length for music of this sort and when the band sticks to shorter offerings I find the music to be absolutely excellent.

'My Girl Is Calling Me (A Liar)' is an extremely funky offering from this album that I feel works incredibly well. The groove is excellent and every element of the music here sounds fantastic. 'Momma's Boy' is another fine track from this release and perhaps is my favourite. It's a stripped down track and for the first minute there is very little going on here other than the vocals. I like the minimalist approach that Chromeo take here; less is more as they say and this is certainly true with this track. The music is fun, the vocals come across exceptionally well and I for one have no cause for complaint whatsoever with this one. The vocals possess an echo, it works well and does in fact suit the sound of Chromeo superbly.

The problem with this album is that it is not consistently excellent, there are great moments of promise here but there are also other times when the music is not very impressive at all. Instrumentally the music is always upbeat, sometimes the sound just doesn't quite work out however and it all sounds a little messy. I would definitely recommend this 'Fancy Footwork', it's not all smooth sailing however and with the good here you must also accept the bad. With some tracks the sound can become extremely repetitive, the vocals can repeat constantly at times and at others it is the instrumental loops that offend. Chromeo is a talented duo, when the sound works here the music is absolutely sensational but sadly this album lacks the consistency required to ever be considered as a classic.


Label: Backyard
Release Date: 30th July 2007

Originally posted by me on my website Alt-UK.com
Source: http://www.alt-uk.com/modules.php?name=Reviews

Summary: An energetic but creatively lacking album of electrofunk.