Chromeo - "Business Casual" Review

Its easy for someone like me to pass up listening to Chromeo. At first listen they are just another band trying to ride the successes of bands emulating and most of the time ripping off 80's music. Its quite the opposite as you dive deeper into the "Business Casual" album. I've already posted the video to the song "Hot Mess" which is a really amazing song. It doesn't stop there, you constantly barraged by great songs that are heavily influenced by 80's songs. This is also one of the few times where I feel that the vocoder is a useful tool. If you want to use an auto tune or vocoder in your music that's OK, but make sure you can sing or have someone who can sing. Otherwise your waisting every ones time by being fake. When used correctly the vocoder is a entertaining tool and Chromeo use it really well.

If I had anything bad about the album is that, while the vocal work on the album is really good, it does tend to get boring. The singer Dave 1 ( David Macklovitch) has a great voice, he just doesn't do much with it. Seems like every song is exactly the same vocally. When your making a pop album this is a no no because it tends to make your music blend. The music itself however stays strong. All of the music was arranged by P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) other than the guitars. He has a real ear for what sounds work well together. Songs like "Night By Night" and "When the Night Falls" stand out as the albums strongest when it comes to the style of music.

Chromeo are a really fun group and "Business Casual" is a really fun album to listen to. Even though the album has a few hiccups here and there its still a great album and will take you back to the 80's when music was much simpler.

"Business Casual" gets 3.5 vocoder's out of 5

1. Hot Mess
2. I'm Not Contagious
3. You Make It Rough
4. Don't Turn The Lights On
5. Grow Up
6. Night By Night
7. Don't Walk Away
8. When The Night Falls
9. The Right Type
10. J'ai Claque La Porte