Fischerspooner; what a joke! Prancing around like a bunch of girls on the first raid of their mum’s wardrobe, arrogantly shouting about how they’re the future of music while forgetting to write any decent songs (ok, we’ll give them "Emerge"). The only thing they ever did of merit was to make electroclash so ridiculous that even the art students thought it was too much form over content. Why should we even care three years after "#1" killed off a musical movement so poncy that it would make Roxy Music consider dressing like Status Quo?
Well, quite simply Fischerspooner have pulled one right out of the bag. "Odyssey" – stupidly overblown title aside – is a taut, economic album with emotional songs at its heart. Yep, we’re as surprised as you. There have obviously been some lessons learned since the flashy electroclash duo climbed into their grubby punk funk cocoon like a reverse musical butterfly.
Witness the album opener and first single, "Just Let Go", a foot to the floor dancefloor belter, all grumbling bass-line and nagging synths. While it might push all the right retro buttons for today’s dance music scene it also has an intensity that's normally found in the best left of centre rock bands. Setting the tone of the whole album, this is not just about a shouted chorus and some electronic big riffs.
The tempo soon lowers for the melancholic "Clouds" before heading into a Daft Punk styled version of "Another Brick In The Wall" in the form of "Never Win" and we have to admit that Mr Fischer and Mr Spooner (Warren and Casey to their mums) are as good off the dancefloor as on. Subject matters across the album involve poets as rock stars, New York as a defining habitat, and fighting your way out of negative cyclical situations. There is even a cover of frantic Japanese band The Boredoms’ "(Circle)", a shimmering analogue slice of abstract trance that ends the album with an impressive bang.
So what changed with Fischerspooner? We don’t know and really don’t care. For the first time, LAUNCH can even bare to look at pictures of them without wanting to rip their smug little faces into pieces of electroclash confetti. Dare we even admit that "Odyssey" is up there with LCD Soundsystem’s debut as an early contender for 80s influenced dance album of the year?
by James Kendall