Julien K, Death To Analog
Anticipation is a universal feeling. Such as love, hunger, and other feelings we feel throughout life, to anticipate is expected when you’re a human being. So when something doesn’t live up to our expectations where does that leave said thing? Does it automatically dismiss it as worthless? Such a question is one embarked on me from this album.
For those who don’t know, Julien-K has been on the music scene for quite some time now, being featured on the Underworld: Evolution soundtrack, and touring with such bands as Mindless Self Indulgence and Linkin Park (bleh), so whats so significant about this? Well while doing such things it’s obvious a band would gain a fan base, and Julien-K have well done that, not only by just establishing it but talking to fans itself, releasing demos and EP’s, and shaking up the underground scene. What makes them worth checking out? The fact they’re a fusion of Electronica and rock that is certainly different then the common mold of music given to the masses. In other words: they’re talented, something that can’t always be said when you listen to an artist. So that leaves of course with the release of their debut album “Death to Analog” its normal for any fan to expect the boundary pushing they’ve been doing all these years, but sadly I don’t believe anyone can say that’s what’s given.
The album is a dark exploration of the electro genre (unlike such artist as Hadouken) and offers some innovative songs such as “Systeme de Sexe” and “Nvr Say Nvr”, but overall the record doesn’t feel that its pushing the boundaries this band has promised to do. One thing it lacks is structure, which isn’t surprising for a record of this genre but its like if someone gave you a mix CD and it was always on shuffle. The biggest problem with the album is that it’s too long, I believe the band wanted to give fans a lot to listen to, but what they didn’t realized is that by such a long album it makes it hard to connect with it, it’s not that its bad to have a 14 track record, but all the songs feel too long, imagine having a meal that’s pictured perfect but once you receive it you realized it’s too much for you to consume, that’s the problem given at hand, there’s too much fat to trim. Another thing that somewhat hurts the album is that it feels it’s come too late, it’s been pushed back release date and release date, and now that it’s here the scene has changed, such bands as “Does it Offend You? Yeah” and “Klaxons” have practically re-shaped the genre, so as this record rolls around it feels lazy, like while recording the band choose the safest route instead of the innovative one, which to me is all that Electronica is about.
But do all of this dismiss the album completely? No. some records can be loved right away and others require more listens, and I think this is one of them, sorry but no one is going to get this album listen to it to start to finish and repeat, it’s certainly one of those albums you re-visit when you can and that’s not bad, we need albums like that. So give this a listen and enjoy it, because it still beats living in nostalgia about the 80’s.
By Ken Grand-Pierre