Caravan Palace – Robot Face Review

In my eyes, Caravan Palace can do no wrong. They could release an album of nothing but fart sounds, and I’d buy it without hesitation. Okay, maybe a little hesitation. But Caravan Palace is the whole reason why I’m into electro swing. Their second album, Panic, totally sucked me into the genre and is still one of my favorites years later. Unfortunately, that puts somewhat unrealistic expectations on their new release, <|°_°|> (aka Less Than Pipe Degree Underscore Degree Pipe Greater Than). Hey, at least it consists of valid filename characters.

The thing is, Robot Face is a major shift in tone from the group’s earlier work. A lot of the songs are more laid-back, feeling less like electro swing and more like house and/or hip hop (if I’m using those genres correctly; there’s a good chance I’m not). I had to listen to the album a few times to warm up to the new style, but I gotta say, it’s still pretty damn good. You’ll just have to set aside your electro swing biases to fully appreciate it, though there are a couple of good swing tracks in here, as well. The song, “Tattoos,” for instance, is an absolute dance fest. But then a slower, more haunting track like “Human Leather Shoes” is a mellow kind of cool.

Trust me, it’s all cool. There’s not a bad track on here, which is saying something coming from me, a guy who usually deletes one or two songs from every album he buys (yes, including Panic). So in that regard, <|°_°|> is arguably their most polished album yet. If you’re a stickler for swing, though, there’s a good chance it will just be a huge disappointment. But give it a chance. Really. If nothing else, this proves that Caravan Palace is a talented group who hasn’t committed itself to one sound. Just please don’t abandon swing entirely, okay guys?

Reviewer

Clark
I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.

Published by

Clark

I love gaming so much, I wrote a book about it.