The second album from Brooklyn’s instrumental electrodisco darlings Ratatat is a remarkably flat-footed affair. Operating under the guise of familiarity, the group manages to leave almost no distinctive imprint on this somewhat boring album.
Although it initially comes across as interesting if not exciting, closer inspection reveals how bland this album actually is. The disc starts off promisingly enough with "Montanita," yet the song says all it has to say in the first minute and doesn’t really go anywhere. "Lex" has a great opening, but other than embellishing the main riff in a few different ways, it does little else of note and begs for vocals. Vocals and decent lyrics might be the missing ingredient here, especially if the words inspired the group to expand their songwriting. Instead, something like "Kennedy" comes across as an instrumental remix of some other, better song.
Most of these tracks have one good idea that the group tries to dress up ad nauseam, but to tedious effect. "Loud Pipes" is a good example of this, then again so is almost any other song on the album. On the other hand, I’m a sucker for "Wildcat" if only for the sampled wildcat growl that shows up throughout the song. The music itself is somewhat monotonous electric boogie dance floor fare, but something about that wildcat makes me smile and keeps me listening.
Maybe if I’d first heard this album in a more festive context, I might have liked it more. However, its weaknesses far outweigh its strengths and it’s much too dull, especially when I’d rather be dancing. This could have been a great party album, but instead it comes across as just another retread of things that were done better the first time around.
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