Album Review: Justice, Hyperdrama

The Parisian house duo of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay don’t believe in rushing things. Hyperdrama is just their fourth studio album as Justice – and their first in nearly eight years.

But they’re worth the forbearance. Here, the pair deploy all their maximalist powers across a lush, melodramatic and gorgeously baroque collection of belters, boppers and bangers.

It starts with a spiral into soft-rock heaven as Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker lends his falsetto to the yacht rock dreadnought ‘Neverender’. There’s more from Parker on ‘One Night/ All Night’, on which he sounds like the Weeknd gone cyberpunk – it is sizzlingly shiny and ludicrously irresistible.

Augé and de Rosen delve further into their impressive contacts book by hooking up with Miguel on slinky steam-roller ‘Saturnine’. That’s before the curtains come down on the divine closer ‘The End’, featuring Prince-like vocals from Thundercat. It’s an exquisite closer to an LP that serves as a reminder – maybe – that, if you wait long enough, Justice will be served in the end.

8/10