Tell me something, dear readers. When was the last time you danced? And I mean, really balls-out danced with no restraint or care for who was watching? And no, drunken dancing doesn't count. You have to have been completely sober.
A challenging question, nu?
For me, it was the first time I had heard Justice's debut album, the aptly-titled †, which was (and still is) the sonic equivalent of a fully computerized disco-powered bulldozer. Cuts like "Phantom II," "Genesis," and "Waters of Nazareth" thunder across the dancefloor demolishing everything in their path, taking no prisoners and leaving no survivors, and Michael Jackson throwbacks like the catchy-as-all-hell "D.A.N.C.E." and the Schoolhouse Rock inspired "Valentine" give you appropriate time to catch your breath. As a fan of heavy metal music, I was consistently astounded at how absolutely fucking heavy Justice was. Finally, techno I could mosh to!
Hearing this year that they had a live album on the horizon certainly whetted my appetite, as Daft Punk's Alive 2007 had proved to me last year how well electronic music can be performed live, much like any other genre of music could - with variety, spin, flair, improvisation, and a lot of fun. I was incredibly eager to hear how well Justice would feed off the crowd's enthusiasm, put new spins on old favorites, mash up Hit Single 1 with Hit Single 2, and leave everyone in shock and awe by the end, still unsure of what exactly they had just experienced. A live album from a group must not only successfully carry across the experience of seeing them live almost perfectly, but it must also make you think to yourself "Shit, I wish I was there" at least every five minutes. On these qualities, Justice delivers. Oh man, do they ever fucking deliver.
Listening to A Cross The Universe is akin to repeatedly being hit in the back of the head with a platinum sledgehammer, with a fine layer of Colombian cocaine covering it. It hurts, but it hurts so good! The Parisian duo ferociously thunders to the top yet again, throwing re-interpretation after re-interpretation of favorite cuts at us, from the symphonic "Stress" to the Homework-era Daft Punk throwback "Two Minutes To Midnight", not to mention the first part of their live remix of "D.A.N.C.E.", which you can't help but hold up a lighter and sing along to. I wish I could have been a part of every single piece of this concert, especially the call-and-response crowd game/Ministry-sampling thrashfest that "We Are Your Friends" (d)evolved into. This is everything that a live electronic album should be - I've found that a lot of DJs nowdays completely forget that there are (gasp!) OTHER PEOPLE down there that they're supposed to be playing music for! Justice's crowd interaction is what the modern DJ should strive to achieve, if he wants to turn the dancefloor into the same party and give his audience the same blunt-trauma-mixed-with-cocaine-high treatment that works so well on A Cross The Universe.
Oh, and they sample Metallica at the end.
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