Groove Armada – Little Black Book

Groove Armada rose to fame by crafting electronic music that obliterated everything else in its path. Even if the genre is not to your liking, you’d be a filthy liar to proclaim that none of their music has ever remotely interested you. So, what can be said about their new and highly-anticipated album, Little Black Book? Avoid it; avoid it like a new and strengthened version of the plague, or it will butcher any affection you once felt for the electronic duo.

Little Black Book supplies listeners with an everlasting source of disillusionment and teary-eyed frustration. The pair who once released tracks of magnitude such as I See You Baby and Superstylin’, have evidently now resorted to creating songs that are only worthy of a lackadaisical listen at best. What on earth has happened? Certainly, the duo are infamous for their interchangeable sound, yet their sound is still always fiercely defiant of any systematic mainstream racket. Little Black Book cannot possibly be linked with this convention. The album merely echoes an indolent attempt to gain some attention – attention that years ago they warranted without a quibble.

To shine a ray of light on the situation, there is one saving grace: a track entitled House in Authority, which releases a musical residue of endurable listening. If any track on the album gains a low-standing chart placement, it will be this one. However, had any other inferior group released it, it wouldn’t gain a scrap of recognition.

Although accolades are somewhat undeserved on the whole, the production of Little Black Book is faultless, and though the track-list may merge into a monotonous journey of tedium, it is at least a clear and crisp journey.

The English duo may have a catalogue of successful former chart-soaring hits, but it will be a dismal spiral of misfortune if anything from Little Black Book joins the ranks of their triumph. There is simply nothing extraordinary about the album, which begs a question: shouldn’t the duo have given up a long time ago?

A two-star rating for this cacophony of dissatisfaction is munificently generous. Groove Armada need to go back to the drawing board or finally acknowledge their musical retirement. Lamentably, Little Black Book is the musical anti-climax of the year to date.

Keira Trethowan

Little Black Book is released on 9^th July 2015, for further information or to order the album visit here.

Listen to Alright here: