Information/Write-up
Bodyparts is the third studio album by Canadian electronic music band Dragonette, released on September 22, 2012. The album was nominated for Dance Recording of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2013.
Dragonette rose to public prominence in a massive way when their Martin Solveig collaboration “Hello” topped Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Songs chart in early 2011. Combining the Canadian trio’s command of soaring synth-pop with Solveig’s crowd-pleasing beats, “Hello” is the kind of banger that fills a dance floor and worms its way into the head of fans and naysayers alike. Nearly two years later, Dragonette is poised for a mainstream breakthrough with their third album Body Parts.
Songs such as “Live in the City” and “Right Woman” feel like the most obvious candidates for the next “Hello”, unleashing club beats and vocals that grasp for the stars. Will it matter that the hooks rely on repetition over sharpness or that the choruses come across as an afterthought? Perhaps not, but the doo-wop versus 8-bit playpen “Giddy Up” is an inducer of good times thanks to its rapid-fire assault of pop power. Every synthpop outfit must pay homage to the 80s, but when Dragonette does on Body Parts‘ bookends “Run Run Run” and “Ghost”, it’s to a hyper-idealized vision of the decade that gives the ballads an out-of-time feel.
Body Parts is filled with enough “are they for real?” moments that it plays as if Dragonette has crafted the album as a parody of modern pop trends. However, “Weird Al” Yankovic they are not. “My Legs” blends deadmau5 distortion with baffling lyrics about the unstoppable nature of dance-hungry legs that would make even Uffie or Ke$ha cringe. The intermarriage of EDM with pop, hip-hop, and rock has been such a successful one lately that traditional genre lines have increasingly less meaning. Even Queen-loving rockers Muse have dubstep moments on The 2nd Law, after all. Dragonette continues the trend with their brand of electro pop on Body Parts, but without bringing anything novel to the mix, let alone an identity that is distinctively their own.
-Frank Mojica, October 3, 2012
Martina Sorbara: lead vocals, keyboards, recorder
Dan Kurtz: keyboards, programming, guitar, bass guitar, backing vocals
Redbastard: drum programming (tracks A2, A3, B2, B5)
Joel Stouffer: drums, drum programming
Felix Bloxsom: keyboards (track B1)
Rene Arsenault: keyboards (tracks B2, B3)
Produced by Felix Bloxsom, Davey Baduik and Rene Arsenault
Mastered by Stefan 'Stef' Heger
Photography by Shervin Lainez
Museum of Canadian Music Musée de la Musique Canadienne Calgary Vinyl Music Museum Canada Museum of Recorded Sound Canada Music Museum Calgary Music Museum
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