What starts out with an intro where singer Ida No sounds like she came straight out of Jane Fonda’s Workout, telling you to “Keep going/You’re doing good/Work that body,” soon turns into an album full of electro/disco/funk-filled beats that were made for dancing. Johnny Jewel, who makes up the beat producing part of this duo, is like the silent partner here, but the one who does most of the work.
This could be the soundtrack to your late-night house-party and tracks like “Beatific,” with it’s driving bass, “Life After Sundown” with beats that sound like they were made with a Casio keyboard, and “Computer Love,” which sounds like it was made with a computer, but a really old one, like a Commodore 64 (remember that?). This would actually make sense too, since it's a Kraftwerk cover!
B/E/A/T/B/O/X is somewhat reminiscent of early Prince and Madonna, which gives this retro sounding album familiarity, while being somewhat refreshingly new. But there are problems here. For one, Ida No is a little hard to understand, as her lyrics a lot of times sound like she’s mumbling the words. Maybe that’s the way it was meant to be as it generally works with the album’s anthemic beats. But one thing that does not work is the fact that much of the album sounds like one long song, as the beats never seem to vary too much from one song to the next, with each track having the same recipe that features a very heavy and fat synth bass beat. However, I will say, that one standout track, “Rolling Down the Hills” is a disco funk filled gem that really shows what Glass Candy can do. The album is pretty and has memorable tracks that seem to draw heavily from early ‘80s dance music, drawing on their best elements. In the end, Glass Candy are worth a spin, and smartly, the album ends on a high note with “Digital Versicolor” having a heavy driving synth beat that for some reason reminds me of Tron and Knight Rider, and I mean that in an awesome way!
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