Review: Ghostland Observatory - Robotique Majestique

Posted on 20 September 2008 | 1 Comment

Filed Under: Album Reviews, Electronic, New Wave, Pop

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After the initial wave of creepy atmospheric synths that open Robotique Majestique I half expected to hear the first notes of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” but it just goes on and on in overly dramatic fashion that really doesn’t serve any purpose or even lead into the albums “proper” songs all that well. What you do get is bouncy and darkly synthy electro-pop juxtaposed with some new-wavey faux-funk. It is a hot mess that (just like Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head) I should find myself hating, but instead like a car crash I can’t look away from, I just can’t bring myself to actually shut it off… until after about the fourth song on the album. I kept thinking that something this crazily misaligned had to be headed somewhere, but it never more than a few feet past the starting line.

So I guess that Ghostland Observatory is a duo and they use hugely retro sounding synths and drum machines to create a vampy shtick. So retro indeed that I can’t shake it that this could potentially be the long-lost soundtrack to some mid-eighties “D” grade horror flick. Signer Aaron Berens sounds a little (or a lot) like Freddy Mercury at times, and that’s cool but with so many pointless instrumental interludes, they’re clearly missing the point. It’s almost cheesy except that the band sounds so serious. I remember back in 2006 that people were talking about Ghostland Observatory like the band was hot shit. If Robotique Majestique is any indication, I’m pretty sure that their time as the next big thing has come and gone.

MP3 | Ghostland Observatory – Dancin’ On My Grave Robotique Majestique
MP3 | Ghostland Observatory – No Place For Me Robotique Majestique

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