Jupiter

Album Review

Only eight months after their self-titled record, S********r kept the iron hot by quickly releasing an eight-song stopgap EP. Short, sweet, and as unapologetically campy as their first, Jupiter finds the group continuing its mission to make indie boys and girls dance unabashedly to synthesized beats. It's essentially a "second verse, same as the first" take on the breezy electro-pop ditties of their debut. The tacked-on remix of "Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second" from the first album is pretty indicative that this is an album of supplementary songs, rather than a step forward. If there's a change at all here, it's that there's more vocoder on board, the songs are slightly more uptempo, and S********r's influences are more obvious this time around. Musically and thematically, "Boy Toy" doesn't seem too far off from Air's "Sexy Boy," "Dance Face 2000" is loosely based on Crystal Castles' "Crimewave," and anyone familiar with singer Josh Hodges' other project Sexton Blake and his subsidiary '80s cover record Plays the Hits won't be surprised by the synth update of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want to Have Fun." These tunes aren't meant to be taken seriously. They're meant to get hipster feet moving, and the groovy "Biggie Smalls" and "Bed-Stuy (Super Cop)" are slick (and ironic) enough to do just that.