Hercules and Love Affair, Blue Songs
Reviewed by: Jean-Philip Guy
I like disco. I like the beats, the sense of joy that usually emanates from that era. I sometimes envy them their desperate hedonism, and the tint it gave to the music disco bands made. None of it made sense of course: Why are you on the dance floor swingin’ to the rhythms of the end of the Napoleonic era? It unfortunately created a precedent, and I guess we now wish that techno/disco/dance “lyricists” had enough knowledge to know what Waterloo is about.
Reborn in the nineties, disco is still alive and well. Fortunately for us, nearly none of its fashion remained…well, a few of the styles, but really none of the fabrics.
That said, Hercules and Love Affair apparently have not been informed that the golden days of disco are long gone. Blue Songs is the follow-up to their self-titled debut album, released in 2008. That initial album felt like an actual disco EP; not a pastiche, not a parody, not an ironically-themed effort by someone who cared only about that style as a decoration. No, DJ Andrew Butler did not craft an homage, but something that felt indigenous to the genre. While my love of discos ever-so-highs was served with tracks such as “Blind,” “Raise Me Up,” and “Classique #2,” Hercules and Love Affair contained darker, slower pieces that spoke of depths, uncommon to most disco offerings. One of the good albums released in 2008, these slower pieces nevertheless created low points in an album otherwise replete with energy.
For their sophomore effort, HaLA decided to even things out a bit more. Blue Songs, even at a first listen, appears to be the work of a more mature band. “Painted Eyes’” electro sets the tone: Welcome to disco! The grand beats, the fake electronic violins: Disco depravity! Gone are the more inward-looking tracks of the first album: HaLA’s approach is much clearer. The beats are more consistent, the low points fewer and higher than they were the first time around. Songs such as “Step Up” and “Visitor” even take us right up to dance beats. Of all the tracks here, “My House” and its beats, reminiscent, at least initially, of Gui Boratto, offers the most interesting composition. “Leonora’s” more chilled-out atmosphere changes the album’s dynamic, and is also a high point.
Originally released at the beginning of January 2011, North Americans received an augmented version of this album in July of 2011, with a complete disc of remixes and three additional songs: Fourteen to the original’s eleven. Of note in these additions, a splendid cover of one of The XX’s best songs, “Shelter.” As I’m not much of a remixes guy, I skeptically approached this second CD, which proved to be interesting. As Blue Songs’ compositions are already layered and deep, this attempt to simplify them by, mostly, the addition of mad beats, results in thrumming bass-filled tracks which are certainly worth a listen. Not the main event, by any stretch of the imagination, but nevertheless inventive and creative enough to provide additional musical sustenance.
In the end, HaLA are chroniclers, preservationist of a genre that has long been copied and imitated, many times badly. Theirs is an honest approach, not an ironic one. Therefore, judged as a disco album, Blue Songs is interesting. I still believe that it lacks a little something to make it truly great, and that compared with a band like When Saints Go Machine, HaLA’s approach feels dated. We are indeed always left wondering if, maybe, HaLA could decide to walk a little further away from the source material to see what lies there. By itself, it is a sustaining electronic album, which unfortunately never really manages to grab your attention for long.