Juan MacLean - Less than human - Album Review

Less than human

This debut album is from the New Hampshire star, Juan MacLean and will be released on July 4th.

The album is a great first attempt, it features songs which resemble Daft Punk and Royksopp and has that edge most dance acts don’t have these days!

The record rarely has vocals, just funky flow with amazing beats from the drum machine and the synthesizer.

The tracks feature the weirdest combination of instruments – on “tito’s way”; there are sounds of cowbells, however the beats totally blend in with the unique sense of vocal and genre! I guess it’s all about experimenting!

“Love is in the air” has an emotive lyric line however the song is made fun of with its bass line and immature flute that makes it sound childish and fun.

The last two tracks on the album – “crush the liberation” and “dance with me” are the dance tracks of the record! They are the longest tracks of the album and I think are two of the best ones too! They feature collaborations from Tim Goldsworthy and Nancy Whang. I don’t know why but there’s a sense of British dance music coming through in these two songs – a sort of Pete Tong theme or maybe just the general music scene in Britain!

It has cracking guitar licks and is also chilled out.

Most of the tracks have that electro touch too, with maybe hints of indie and mild rock. I would say that the album is quite retro too; I think it’s heavily influenced by the 70s and maybe the 80s with the electro-pop beats. The songs sound like Juan is actually playing the instruments himself, but in fact it’s the sampler he uses when recording his tracks.

Juan won’t be performing this summer but check out his new single “Tito’s way” released in June.

http://www.thejuanmaclean.com

Candice Finney