Less Than Human
- The Juan MacLean
- Band Name: The Juan MacLean
- Record Label: Astralwerks / DFA
- Release Date: Aug 9, 2005
- Critic Score
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Overflows with ebullient beats that are both booming and bizarre. [29 Jul 2005, p.68]
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The Juan Maclean takes the mechanized side of music, the Kraftwerk precision and automated bass, but injects it with a personal, human vision and unmet, unwanted desires.
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90It's a mightily impressive achievement.
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83It's a techno album, straight up. [Aug 2005, p.98]
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81It's not quite the masterpiece everyone (at least me) was hoping for... but it does deliver on the hype, which in 2005 is almost the same thing.
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A record of sonic maturity and real beauty. [2 Jul 2005, p.64]
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80Live drums and guitars give it a feeling of anarchic playfulness. [Aug 2005, p.101]
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80A startling album. [Aug 2005, p.98]
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80Like attending a bombastic revival of Kraftwerk, Eno and Devo presided over by a Juan Atkins and Derrick May DJ tag team. [Jul/Aug 2005, p.102]
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Less Than Human might not be what a lot of people expected, but it fits its format as well as any hard-hitting two-track single, and it's a lot more functional than most other albums made by dance artists.
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80Less Than Human's only flaw is that it's too damn short.
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Less Than Human lives up to the [DFA]'s reputation for making quality dance records, but it also explores enough outside territory so as not to feel like the next album out on the conveyor belt.
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If the DFA medium/message commands one groove rattling under a nation, Less Than Human is evidence enough that bot-genius Maclean is just the half-man needed to bang up the plumbing so that all faucets drip lightning bolts.
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80A dance record for people who never leave their apartments, a rock record for the rave set, Less Than Human is the sound of people high on energy and sweat.
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80Less Than Human is hardly less than human; it is in fact a pretty damn good emulation of being human, right down to its faults: unpredictable behavior, complex textures, unsightly lumps and all. Which is precisely why Less Than Human is so exceptional: it's a uniquely 'realistic' take on dance music.
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70For some, the absence of human warmth may prove the album's ultimate flaw. Still, until there are humans out there making music like this robot, we'll settle for it.
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70Very New York and strongly redolent of the whole DFA/LCD sound. [Jul 2005, p.114]
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Both charming and danceable.
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Less Than Human is the sound of James Murphy transforming the songs of a guy who has spent a nauseating amount of time fiddling about with Kraftwerk-y synths into an album as enjoyable at home as it is on the dancefloor.
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In its deceptive simplicity, Less Than Human plays like the most focused and consistent DFA-affiliated album yet.
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70Good, but not outstanding.
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It suffers less from a lack of competence than a general lack of inspiring tracks and the consistency of swiss cheese.
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60This is a rather stronger record than [Daft Punk's] on the whole, even if it likewise suffers from flaws in execution.
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60On songs like "In the Afternoon" and "Time is Running out," Maclean fails to add even a shred of feeling to his chilly IDM clones.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 8
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Mixed: 2 out of 8
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Negative: 1 out of 8
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BrianS5
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PaulS9
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WalterE5Just one brilliant song. Then nothing follows...