Datarock — Red

It seems like the duo of Datarock have always got one thing right, but also one thing terribly wrong. They're utilizing electronica in a more subdued way than their peers, choosing instead to make it a supporting player in their music, not the star of the show.

OK, so they do pull out the big guns — the vocal samples, the wacky sounds, the robot voices, the '80s synth — on opening track "The Blog" (yet what a catchy opening track it is), but there's an actual human-played guitar carrying "Dance!" Then there's a short song like "Do It Your Way," which contains very few synth effects, instead relying on that same clever guitar and a solid drumbeat to set up some very smooth, calming vocals.

But what they're doing wrong is releasing the most obnoxious ear-worm singles possible. From 2007's "Fa-Fa-Fa" — which personally made me change the radio channel any time it came on — to this album's "True Stories," Datarock's singles are almost guaranteed to be overplayed on the radio and be stuck in your head for days.

This would be an alright thing if they were the better songs, but "True Stories" is hardly the strongest song on Red. If anything, "The Blog" would have worked better, being a scathing examination of how connected we are to cyberspace all set to a thumping dark beat. Even the catchy following track "Give It Up" would have been a better choice as a single. Instead, we're probably going to hear "True Stories" all over the radio and adverts until we're all sick of it and are cursing Datarock's name once more. And thus the cycle continues.

Please, Datarock, next time pick a single that will be memorable for the right reasons, and I promise all will be forgiven. Even the "new rave" tag.

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