Chromeo
Fancy Footwork
(Vice Records)
Chromeo quickly acquired cult status with 2004's Needy Girl, a knowing slab of electro funk that was both funny yet too good to be dismissed as a novelty record. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough material to stretch across the accompanying debut album, She's in Control, laying duo P-Thugg and Dave 1 open to accusations of being little more than a 1980s comedy act.
Which is harsh, as Chromeo's follow-up is a rich tapestry of electronic influences. Whether they're the right ones is another matter: Fancy Footwork has shades of pre-Purple Rain Prince and 1980s Hall & Oates, with splashes of Rockwell and Chic thrown in for good measure. Low-tech key-boards are married to self-described macho guitars and slick electro grooves, as evidenced by 100%, a pastel-tinted, saxophone-laden track that flirts with the riff of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean.
Chromeo play on contrasts at nearly every level, describing themselves as 'the only successful Arab/Jew partnership since the dawn of human culture'. Key-boardist P-Thugg talks exclusively through a vocoder, while singer-guitarist Dave 1 implores women to appreciate his 'game', which is based mostly on the fact that he's a bit older than 'the other guys', in Bonafied Lovin'.
