Justice - †

Confession time - I've never really been a fan of dance music. Repetitive, thumping bass line followed by a peroxide blonde whore delivering nonsensical lyrics in a voice that only her Mother could tolerate. Quite frankly, I was blinded by the mainstream; the stuff 13 year olds spend their pocket money on buying and in turn, push up the charts. Now however, i've discovered a new genre of music. This new genre is also called dance however this time it's actually good.

This is where Justice and their confusingly titled debut, † comes in. I'm usually highly skeptical when it comes to listening to a band i've never heard of before, after all if they're so good how come they haven't had a spell in my CD player? Fortunately, my skepticism doesn't stop my from eating humble pie and admitting when i've completely missed a gem of a band. It also doesn't stop me from admitting that i'm a complete tit when said band did a tune that i've sung along to when pissed as a fart so here it goes - i'm a complete tit. Yes, the song We Are Your Friends, one of the stalwarts of my Saturday night sessions, was a collaboration of sorts between Simian and Justice. And I call myself a music fan.

The album itself is littered with religious iconography. The title, the album cover and the song names are unashamedly holy although I think it's fairly safe to assume Justice are about as Catholic as Rage Against the Machine are capitalist. However risque all this may be, it's the music is what makes this release stand out. It keeps the repetitive thumping baseline that I bemoaned right at the very start of this review but it doesn't rely on it. There's enough going on in and around the music for them to dip in and out, to change the rhythm and the tempo.

There's more than a few stand out tracks on the album but head and shoulders above the rest is D.A.N.C.E. Justice's apparent homage to Michael Jackson and a blatant attempt at trying to fit as many lyrical references into the song about the bloke as possible. Even so, this song may well puncture the mainstream and may well get Justice more than a few fans in the single buying teenage bracket.

I can't recommend this album highly enough. I decided to give it a listen on the fact that the album covers anti-religion look interested me and now quite ironically, i'm sitting here converted. Ladies and Gents, put away your skinny jeans and stop wearing your scarves indoors, Indie is dead and Justice killed it.