Roosevelt - Roosevelt

Roosevelt
Roosevelt
2016
Spotify

The debut album from Roosevelt is a dance inspired journey through a synthpop dream. His music floats and swirls from the very first moment the "Intro" comes in. The first track acts as almost a gateway into the album rather than a standalone song. This much attention to detail continues throughout the record. "Wait Up" sets the tone however showing that Roosevelt does have a mastery of dance music that transcends just being a house DJ, or a synthpop star. What is really interesting is that you would not expect this kind of shimmery bright music to come out of Germany. Marius Lauben is based in Cologne doesn't bring the usual heavy and industrial feel that a lot of German electronic artists like to make, but their is always a slightly darker bend to these tracks. Roosevelt brings in tropical sounds, but never goes full tropical house. He could play his music in Ibiza and get the dance floor moving but you would never call him an Ibiza DJ. The music takes such and interesting stance on dance that from the outset it is super compelling. The flourish that is used towards the end of "Moving On" is simply fantastic and elevates the song as well as the album to something totally new. The music He makes ends up being so well rounded that it never suffers from that thing that plagues a lot of electropop where the lower end tends to suffer.

"Colours" the lead single from the record is a heavily disco record which features Lauben singing a moody chorus giving it this really powerful impact other than being something you can shake your hips to. Comparisons to label mates Hot Chip are obvious however Roosevelt stays a bit more popy and less on the super technical side of things that Hot Chip are so well known for. "Fever" ends up being one of the most exciting tracks on the record. It certainly has that earworm quality and is one that sticks with you long after its last notes have faded away. If the soft rock of the 80s would have had more edge and take more risks the likely result would be an album like Roosevelt. The transition from "Daytona" to "Fever" is really something special. "Daytona" on it's own is a solid track, but the way it spills into "Fever" makes both of them so much better and so exciting. What you get most from Roosevelt is that there are still new ways to approach dance music. Not every trope that has been done and done again is totally dead if someone is able to find a new way to use it, like Roosevelt does over and over again. Don't miss this debut record, some songs of the summer way just lay within it's depths.

8.2 out of 10