Exciting But Not Exceptional
The intro is a strange feature on an album; it either comes across as pretentious or justifiably ambitious, but either way it's a sign of a band with grand plans and who want to create an album, rather than a collection of songs. First track, 'Ending Of An Era' begins with a beat and chord progression almost identical to that of cheesy, but terribly catchy dance tune, 'Starlight' by Supermen Lovers. The tune itself is a mixture of heavy beats, falsetto vocals and low rumbling spoken word. It's the kind of track you'd expect to blare out over Ibiza, rather than chill to on a summer's day.
'Into The Galaxy' recalls the glittery, electro sheen of Klaxons, but with added grandiose booming vocals, it's unfortunate that like Klaxons, Midnight Juggernauts are also a three-piece so comparisons are likely to be frequent when both make the same blend of space-age, far-our rock. Still, if the song doesn't do it for you, you can always challenge yourself to name as many songs as possible which also feature the chant, "G-L-O-R-I-A". 'Tombstone' is more out and out electro with vo-codered vocals and angular beats that give it a robotic charm.
It's also hard not to see a touch of Muse's cosmic sky-high rock in the celestial choir of, 'Worlds Converged' or fast-paced harmonies of, 'Road To Recovery'; that's not to suggest that Midnight Juggernaughts style is entirely derivative, but perhaps they've simply come along at the wrong time when all of their ideas have already been featured in chart-topping tunes. 'Twenty Thousand Leagues' features another warbling Bee Gees style chorus over rippling beats; it's another dreamy highlight with a laidback melody that has just enough vigour to catch your attention with jagged guitars let loose over a cool, soothing vocal melody.
Pomp electro rock with tinges of funk on tunes like, 'Shadows', sums up Midnight Juggernauts' style, which darts from the furious beats of the early tracks, to the more chilled feel of title track, 'Dystopia'. This album is anything but boring, but it's also sad that it's so much like Muse for dance music fans that it's also fairly unexceptional; several years back the space style synths would have been a revelation, but these days it's hard to muster up that much excitement about a style that you've heard before.