United States Of Electronica
U.S.E.
(Manaheim)
Holy crap. I'm not sure if this band is for real or not (based on their website, I think the answer is probably), but regardless of their intent, this is at the same time some of the most infectious and cheesy music that I've heard in some time. Imagine a cross between Daft Punk, The Cardigans, and Andrew W.K. and you're getting somewhat close to what United States of Electronica (even with a cheesy name!) is about musically. Lyrically, the group doesn't exactly scratch the surface in terms of deepness, basically taking things back to the old-school raver theme of P.L.U.R. (peace, love, unity and respect).
In other words, this is 12 tracks of music whose main goal is for you to check your brain at the door and leave your ass on the dancefloor. Although there's nothing quite as ludicrous as "Party Til You Puke," song titles like "IT IS ON!" (their emphasis) and "Takin' It All The Way" haunt the release while "All Sounds And All People" is sort of a spoken-word track in which some dude preaches to the party people over the sounds of a crowd screaming. "Open Your Eyes" follows it and is basically a blueprint for the album with juicy synth lines, vocordored vocals harmonizing with regular vocals and huge choruses that involve shouting (and likely arm-pumping).
The entire album isn't filled with 4/4 singalongs, though, and when the album slows things down they stumble pretty badly. "Night Shift" is an attempt to bring things down to a chill level, and the cringe-worthy vocals simply bog things down far too much when they don't have a pumping beat and chorus of synths and guitars behind them. In the end, this is a total bubblegum album that is fun for awhile but can't quite sustain the energy that it bursts out of the gate with. If you're a person looking for some pure fluff summer music for playing with the top down, you'll no doubt find this in your player as the weather gets warmer, but if you're looking for anything deeper at all, look elsewhere.
Rating: 5
