★★★☆☆
Electro smooth-talkers from the Netherlands Le Le strut through their latest LP with a man bag’s worth of brightly colored, wafer-thin pop full of pout and pomade. Taking those words on board, those wanting entertainment should have a decent pinch of salt within arm’s reach. Amidst talk of playboy lifestyles, “Pearl Necklace” sounds like something Lonely Island would send viral, turning the sleaze and scandal of the 80s into a schoolboy’s joke. Electro super-freaks “Crazy Shaped Lady” and “Sexual Hair” aren’t far behind, and when switching to French language fancy from the collar-up school of cool, the kitsch value goes through the roof.
Preservation of the art as serious musicianship is done with a wily intelligence that makes the fun a bit more thought out and takes the tiers of style over substance, as laid bare on “Private Guy”, out of the situation. “Drunken Cigarettes” avoids parody with rapped verses and a bleary MGMT-ish hook that all hipsters will be making their next Facebook status or Twitter update, and the amusing “Scary Sweaters” helps make the perfect connection of sound and fashion. With the added mixing up of dream states and determination on “Damien” and pure pop of “Morning Drinks,” the realization is that Le Le — Faberyayo, Parra and Rimer London — are more than meets the eye and always easy on the ear.
File under: Chromeo, EIK, Light Asylum