Radical Connector
- Mouse on Mars
- Band Name: Mouse on Mars
- Record Label: Thrill Jockey
- Release Date: Aug 24, 2004
- Critic Score
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This may not be Mouse on Mars' most ambitious albums, but it's among the group's most successful -- it's not at all difficult to feel a connection to this truly intelligent dance music.
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86Their most melodic and probably their best record yet. [#11, p.94]
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Sexy robot vocals slip and slide all over juicy squeals, raindrop plops, and jungle-thick beats. [20/27 Aug 2004, p.124]
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81Though reference points like Daft Punk and Prince have rightly been thrown around, Radical Connector is in fact a strange album that doesn't sound like much else.
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Stimulating dance music with infectious grooves. [#7]
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80Ratchets up the accessibility quotient considerably. [Nov 2004, p.102]
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80The compositions on Connector are firmer, more contained than they've been since 1997's Audoditacker.
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With Radical Connector, Mouse on Mars is taking an important step forward – both in terms of musical vision and international standing.
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80The giddy shift towards pop and even traditional dance music structure that Mouse on Mars take here is so irresistibly fun and persuasive that the very thought of loyalists furrowing their brows and crossing their arms is comical.
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80Some of their best tunes to date. [#8, p.78]
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Despite its flaws, Connector stands as one of their best.
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70It still doesn't quite have the emotional grab of some of their older work despite the addition of more vocals and a slightly more glossy sound.
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The German duo has hitched its busy beats to big-ass melodies. [28 Oct 2004, p.100]
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Radical Connector softens up the abrasive glitch techno and broken beats of 2001's Idiology to produce a more dance-friendly album, with their signature warped vocals taking on a house sheen and invading every track.
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70The act's most melodic and accessible album of its career.
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70Mouse on Mars have successfully adhered to an important distinction regarding electronic music: to utilize vocalists as additional detail and atmosphere without ever fully depending on them.
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A warmer, more leisurely update of 2001's Idiology, Radical Connector foregrounds vocals to more inviting, song-minded ends.
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The change is typically drastic, but given the uncharacteristically long period spent in the studio this time around, the sum of worthwhile material is far less impressive.
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60Amid all the beaming newness of Radical Connector is something familiar and unsettling. [Sep 2004, p.116]
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Even if Radical Connector beckons with a shelf-screaming sheen of freshness, much of its contents are merely the microwaved scraps from Basement Jaxx’s block party.
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50A fitful and languishing affair whose best moments will have you yearning for more, while the worst may leave some listeners wondering what they were doing here in the first place. [#248, p.59]