- “Neverender” and “One Night/All Night” are sweeeeeet. “One Night/All Night” definitely feels better inside the album than on its own as a single.
- “Generator” is still my beloved and can break my brain all day long, fucking love this track
- “Afterimage” and “Mannequin Love” are so unique, even by Justice’s standards (I feel) it’s great to hear them do something more than AVD/Woman1. The fact that they used the main intro/instrumental of Mannequin Love to make a gabber-ass mix with “Chorus” (from Audio Video Disco) link is so fucking good and almost makes me wish they’d release that bit as its own track.
- “Dear Alan” is great. I won’t go as far as to say it’s Justice’s “Giorgio by Moroder” but it gives me the same vibes, great stuff
- “Incognito”, also one of my favorites, probably my 2nd favorite of the singles they released prior. And their Coachella sets proved that this track will GO in a live setting. This one and Generator feel like a return to Cross-era Justice in a way (or at least the further we’ll ever see again I think)
- “Moonlight Rendez-vous” is such a fascinating choice. Definitely not used to Justice going to those territories at all and it’s a great surprise IMO
- “Explorer”, god damn dude! Connan Mockasin’s vocals reallllly hit in a surprising way?! Reminds me of Jim Carrey’s interludes on The Weeknd’s Dawn FM or Vincent Price on Thriller (maybe not as good but you know). It and Moonlight Rendez-vous really are a good “break” before…
- “Muscle Memory” / “Harpy Dream” (putting the two together because the altter is 28s long anyway), this one feels like it should go harder than it does? It sounds great and could go insane spliced up and played in a live setting but it almost sounds like a 4min intro?
- “Saturnine”, I’ll confess I never heard of Miguel before but his vocals really grabbed me in the single release. The album version sounds even better. A great “end of the party” type track2
- “The End” works really really well. Surprising intro, almost feels like we’re going for another round instead of finishing the album! I didn’t know I needed a Justice and Thundercat in my life but BOY am I glad they worked together. Can’t help but wonder if we need to take the lyrics at face value or not though lmao. I would be sad if this was Justice’s final album but I wouldn’t be too upset either.
Overall I like this album way more than I expected! Woman and Audio Video Disco made me feel like I would skip most tracks in Justice’s post-Cross albums and focus on the live albums (which are consistently great) but Hyperdrama proved me wrong and I’m happy about it.
Even more excited to see them live in August and maybe December!
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I am lukewarm at best on those two albums as studio releases. Their live versions rule but studio? eh.
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that OS X “Glass” sample will kill me though
