A while back we posted the video on the Facebook page for the new Chromeo single, 'Night by Night' (if you missed that: HERE IT IS). Well here it is 6+ months later and the rest of the album has been released, to give whatever passes for album context these days to that lonely single hanging out there all alone. First impressions can be the worst impressions and the hardest to recover from. If it weren’t for that I were reviewing it, Business Casual might not have made it past a second or third full rotation.
The first couple of times through, BC’s presence was defined by absence. I could only hear it for what it lacked. It was when I forced myself to listen a little closer that I began to hear less of what wasn’t there, and more of what was. Turns out what was missing may have just been one more song. It is one song shorter than both She’s In Control and Fancy Footwork, though average total length in minutes is right around the 40 mark, which is pretty much par for the Chromeo course (SiC and FF each clocking in at 44.5 and 39.8 respectively). Once I stopped waiting for a song that never came (a song like “You’re so Gangsta’ or ‘Bonafied Lovin’ (Tough Guys)’ that catches your ear and won’t let go), I began to hear that what was left was still a pretty cohesive and relatively well thought out album that kicks out the jams when it has to and knows pretty much where it’s going the whole time. There seems to be a gradual shift in overall tone from get-the-party-started to general seduction, as if they’ve finished their introductions and are ready to do something about it.
There are enough jams on this album to satisfy any fan, easily as many as their previous two titles. It’s not always possible, or wise, to best oneself. Sometimes one must settle for just as good. Which should be fine. A consumer of any media, anticipating a new release to be gangbusters, is setting themselves up for disappointment from the get. Basically what I’m trying to say is that the artist doesn’t owe the audience anything, except a presentable body of work (which when read back sounds way more defensive than intended, and also implies a lot more than I’m willing to admit or even really agree with within the parameters of this essay, so I’ll leave it at that for now) (and by "presentable body of work", I mean literally able to be presented. I’m not willing to concede conceptual art for this point.). Thanks to the internet, there is no excuse for buying an album you don’t like any more. We have more than enough chances to try before we buy, as it were. So I guess what I’m trying to say is how can anyone complain about anything, ever? Let’s try and be a grateful audience for once, and forget all this fashionable irony and affected cynicism and hip to the fact that if you’re not paying it forward by creating some art of your own, then you need to pay it back. Huge. And if neither, than shut the hell up.
