CD Review: Ratatat's 'LP4'

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LP4, the new album from Brooklyn producers and multi-instrumentalists Mike
Stroud and Evan Mast (a/k/a Ratatat), wears an appropriate title for more than just the obvious reasons. Yes, the disc is a long-player, and it is indeed the band's fourth such release. But the songs were culled from the left-overs of its immediate
predecessor, LP3, and therefore sound more like a sequel to that album than
a fresh batch of recordings and ideas. I'd go so far to say that Ratatat
would have been better off labeling LP4 as a collection of B-sides than a
proper follow-up record; its 12 tracks are rehashed ideas heavy with the
dust of the cutting room floor.

"Bilar" opens LP4 with a slow rise of somber synth and horn sounds that, for about 40 seconds, hints that Ratatat might take a new, relatively mellow approach to its sample-saturated party music. But this notion is quickly assuaged with the explosion of skittering sound effects, slow-knocking hip-hop beats, and more melodies than most instrumental acts usually push at once. After peppering in some obligatory guitar riffage--you know, just to make sure we don't forget this a Ratatat record--the mood gets more relaxed, eventually giving way to an obscure sample of German actor Bruno Schleinstein talking about love, friends, and music. That exact combination of sounds and ideas is Ratatat to a T, and the
remaining 11 songs are nearly identical, which gives LP4 the distinct stench of musical stagnation.

Along with the duo's trademark reverse guitar sound, Stroud and Mast have added  harpsichords, a vocoder, string sections, and a high-register, arpeggiated synth to their growing list of overused sounds. Even LP4's more interesting moments -- "Neckbrace and "Grape Juice City" are propelled by especially awesome beats -- get interrupted by melodies and instrumental flourishes that are pure déjà vu.

If you don't care so much about musicians growing, evolving, and expanding on the ideas that made them popular, Ratatat's latest will suit you just fine. But if you care more for artists and albums on an upward trajectory towards musical enlightenment, maybe you should wait to see what Ratatat LP number five has in store.

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