The Juan MacLean - Less than Human (Astralwerks)

So it takes me a little while to get into a lot of stuff, especially when it's really hyped up by the likes of Pitchfork; no surprise there, I rarely bother to research and get into pop music (well moreso lately). Which happened doubly with this album: got it a couple of months ago, thought "ehh, doesn't really do it for me" and just left it on my iPod meaning to give it another chance at some point. Fast forward a few weeks, I am sitting at Sparky's (btw what the fuck is up with their website making it look like a swank club!?!?!) with my friends Tony and Rebecca, and this sort of half-familiar song comes on and I'm totally into it. So I ask the guy in charge of music what it is and he says it's Juan MacLean which instantly makes sense and I listen to the album on the walk home. I guess this shows the value of repeated listening but even more so the way that context changes the way you feel about music. "Music sounds better with you", well it sounds even better hanging out with your friends at a coffee shop on a Sunday afternoon and it's something you've heard before but can't quite place so there's that little bit of nostalgia there to reel you in. Anyway this album actually makes you want to dance unlike most of the hipster shit and is much less overtly referential. I like the vocals a lot too, especially on the last song "Dance With Me," and that little spoken thing at the end of "In the Afternoon". Plus there's this production thing that both MacLean and James Murphy do where they use cold, synthesized sounds for the first part of a song and then bring in a piano or a slightly more organic synth sound later on which can be totally jarring. In a good way. Kinda want to check out Six Finger Satellite now to see what they sounded like.