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Cross

Justice

2007

Buy At Rough Trade
Cross
Album Summary

Cross (stylized as †; titled Justice on digital platforms) is the debut studio album by French electronic music duo Justice. It was first released digitally on 11 June 2007, and later on 18 June through Ed Banger Records and Because Music in most countries and Vice Records in the United States. Recorded during 2005 and 2006 in Paris, Cross was composed as an "opera-disco" album. It features many samples and "microsamples" throughout, with about 400 albums being used as sampled material. The song "D.A.N.C.E." is a tribute to Michael Jackson. French musician Mehdi Pinson appears on "DVNO", and vocalist Uffie appears on "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy". The album was supported by the singles "Waters of Nazareth", "D.A.N.C.E.", "DVNO", "Phantom Pt. II", and "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy". A controversial music video was also released for "Stress". Cross received critical acclaim and was a commercial success, reaching number 11 on the French albums chart and number one on the UK and US dance album charts. The album was nominated for Best Electronic/Dance Album and "D.A.N.C.E." was nominated for Best Dance Recording and Best Video at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards. Cross was later certified gold in the UK on 9 December 2011, for passing shipments of 100,000 copies. As of 2011, sales in the United States have exceeded 134,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In 2012 it was awarded a diamond certification from the Independent Music Companies Association which indicated sales of at least 200,000 copies throughout Europe.

Wikipedia

Rating

3.29

Votes

11665
Genres
Electronica

Reviews

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Sun Apr 25 2021
5

This is new to me. I fucking love it! On rare occassions a dance album just grabs me and I fall head over heels in love, this is one of those times. It sounds so BIG. I've listened in the middle of the night, on low volume. I cannot wait to put it on the big music system and go loud. There are a billion samples recognisable throughout, it's funky as hell, and impossible to not dance like a nut to. Love it.

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Fri Dec 16 2022
4

Is there a school in France where they teach kids how to make great electronic music, like The Jean-Michel Jarre School of Synthesis or something? Because from the late nineties into the aughts they were churning out great record after great record: Daft Punk, Air, M83, Justice…it’s almost unreal how consistently great the records coming out of France were. Justice sits squarely on the Daft Punk side of things, with their glitchy, aggressive house music. Cross is definitely stronger in the first half. The tempo gets ratcheted back a little after “Phantom, Pt. II”, but after the aggressive first half a little reprieve is welcome. As the second half goes on, things pick back up with “Stress”, “Waters of Nazareth” and “One Minute to Midnight” ending the record on a high note. Fun to revisit this record, a solid 4/5, even if you’re likely to be glitched-out by the time it’s over.

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Wed Feb 22 2023
3

This album is about 15 minutes too long. They could’ve trashed “The Party” and it would’ve improved the album significantly. It had a strong start but kept getting weaker with each passing song.

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Thu Oct 08 2020
5

One of the first albums I have listened to in a while that made me go "Whoa". So many suburb tracks on this album. "Stress" is incredible as is the infamous "DNCE"

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Thu Mar 04 2021
4

still a banger if maybe a tad bloated; generally seems the fewer lyrics the better ("the party" is rough). that's great bass!

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Thu Oct 22 2020
5

This is new to me and much better than I expected -- electronic duo from France, with rock/metal/funk influence.

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Mon Feb 01 2021
5

Love me some Justice. Will forever listen to them.

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Mon Feb 01 2021
5

This is the album that got in interested in Electronic music, every song is perfect, with there was a six stars option.

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Thu Feb 11 2021
5

Brilliant album. Reminds me of uni. A gateway to French dance and electronica.

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Mon Mar 14 2022
5

Not my usual genre, but this was very catchy and engaging, which I don't usually get out of electronic music. Loved it and will check out more of their music!

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Tue Jun 15 2021
4

Give me a big throwback to Homework/Discovery era Daft Punk, and I am absolutely loving it. I was almost set on giving this album a 5, but wow, the song The Party was so bad it lost the album an entire star for me.

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Tue Nov 09 2021
4

An electronic album that rocks - always found this a very solid album with some 5* tracks, in particular DVNO and Stress are great. Shame there is not much more French techno/house music in the list (Abstraxion, Romulus, Rone, Worakls etc etc)

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Sat Mar 20 2021
3

It's Daft Punk, but compressed and distorted to hell. Grading on a curve and giving a 3 because it's a dance album that only made me want to play in traffic like four times. Best track: D.A.N.C.E.

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Wed Sep 07 2022
2

Sans the inscrutability of Daft Punk or the self seriousness of (I think) Saint Etienne and Beach House but incorporating the hop-and-skip of Avalanches, it's pretty good album-oriented dance music.

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Tue Jun 20 2023
2

Well having no idea at all who Justice are, I was worried this would be some kind of American Christian Rock album. Thankfully, it wasn't. What it was, however, was an impenetrable mishmash of various approaches to electronica, that manages to at once suggest the artist(s) are trying to experiment with sounds and to make pop music. The vocal tracks seemed wildly out of place. The whole thing sounds like it's recorded in a single iMac in someone's bedroom. Much of it is exactly the kind of 'doesn't quite work' composition I'd expect to hear from teenagers learning to use software. Whoever programmed the drums seems to be using presets. Then there are unexpected wild flights of self-indulgent slap bass, that are a reminder that these are actually some kind of professional act. Stress is a standout track that made me sit up and listen, and perhaps gave me a context that this is coming from a world view I have no part of, and probably don't want to explore. Which, of course, is ideal, if we assume it's from a younger generation than my own.

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Sat Feb 13 2021
5

Such a ground breaker - the rock influence makes the disco very approachable for non-EDM fans. Hard not to bop along and feel like it's time to dance.

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Sat Jun 26 2021
5

Great electronic album. I knew the single but didn't know the artist or expect the album to be so good.

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Thu Apr 08 2021
5

Immaculate. Fun and profound. Silly and epic. Love

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Wed Jul 21 2021
5

I wish I had found this group earlier. I love it and have found so much through the too. Definition of a five.

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Thu May 13 2021
5

Such a good album. I haven't played it in a while. I used to listen to this a lot with my student when I first started teaching. I think I saw them live at some point too. Still sounds fresh.

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Fri Feb 05 2021
5

High school nostalgiaaa so effen good

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Sat May 01 2021
5

Saved Prior: D.A.N.C.E. Cutting Edge Tier: 12. Waters of Nazareth Saved Tier: 11. Stress 10. One Minute to Midnight 9. Phantom 8. Newjack 7. Valentine 6. Phantom Pt. II 5. Genesis 4. DVNO 3. D.A.N.C.E. 2. Let There Be Light 1. The Party Overall Notes: A remarkably consistent electronic album. The main pitfall of electronic albums for me is that some of the songs drag on for a bit too long, but at 48 minutes for 12 songs this is just about the perfect length for the songs to breath without overstaying their welcome. Only knew D.A.N.C.E. going in, and that is definitely the outlier of the album. It's a lot darker and dirtier than that single, but in the best way possible. Daft Punk have their influence here, but they were also in turn influenced by this mammoth of an album. Incredible stuff.

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Wed Jun 09 2021
5

My sort of music, a happy new discovery

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Tue Jul 13 2021
5

Dit is echt zo'n lekker album! Heerlijk tijdens een lange autorit. Op elk feestje of festival is het nummer D.A.N.C.E. altijd raak. Voor mij dus de maximale score!

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Tue Jul 13 2021
5

Toonaangevend album. Genre overschrijdend. Erg inventief wat sound en productie betreft. Je hoort duidelijk de Franse Roots terug, met dank aan Daft Punk.

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Tue Jul 13 2021
5

Spannend ... filmmuziek? Nope, elektrotechniek! Nog leuker dan verwacht!! Veel langzamer dan menig acid/house en teveel drum'n'bass voor ambient. Heel leuke funcky-disco-deuntjes afgewisseld met geinige pliepjes en plopjes. Verrassing van de dag is "Phantom Pt. II", een lekkere mix tussen The Prodidgy en Daft Punk dat soms wat weg heeft van Air of Ladytron. Blijkbaar is er zelfs een passende videoclip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzPPwbY6TMI En dan komt daarna meteen het nummer "Valentine" dat meteen mijn hart steelt. Ik houdt ook wel van de chip-music die er soms doorheen zit. Ik zit al in level 2 volgens mij, haha. Het is een album met voor ieder wat wils. Heel verrassend. De titels passen trouwens ook erg goed bij het gevoel van de nummers. I love it! Veel bekende nummers van Justice van andere albums zijn ook de moeite waard om te luisteren. Ik heb in ieder geval weer leuke nieuwe muziek ontdekt.

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Fri Jul 23 2021
5

Justice's Cross is a punchy and in your face Dance/EDM/House record that is one to get you really going either on the dance floor or one to pump you up. I love that singles are still played out on the youth radio station in my country. Their clever use of samples and hundreds of microsamples throughout are a showing that music can truly be anything you make of it. Best: Genesis; D.A.N.C.E.; One Minute to Midnight Worst: Hard to pick a bad song in the entire album. Each song captured my attention from the get-go and didn't let me go.

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Fri Aug 20 2021
5

Freaking awesome. Don't know how I missed this one. Love it.

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Wed Sep 15 2021
5

Ну такое, мне не оч зашло ибо это сраный дабстеп

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Thu Oct 14 2021
5

Que discazo!!!! Excelente! Una maravilla!

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Mon Nov 15 2021
5

Geht voll ab Bisschen viel los Viel Druck Synthies!

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Thu Nov 18 2021
5

A great combination of beat and melody. This album takes French House a step further. The beats and resonant, solid, and occasionally glitchy while the melodies are memorable. Essentially, this album doesn't sacrifice musicality for the sake of the beat. It is one of the best electronic albums ever and still sounds fresh.

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Thu Nov 18 2021
5

Brought me back to middle/high school when I heard this group the first time!

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Mon Dec 06 2021
5

Oh wow this takes me back to my friend introducing me to this band as a teenager, still a bop!

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Tue Dec 07 2021
5

So grimey! Loved it! More depth than just "D.A.N.C.E."

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Wed Jan 05 2022
5

This fucking album. This was on HEAVY rotation for me during the first half of college. I have heard this album at least 100 times. I listened to it while jogging, while partying, even while cleaning the house. It has the the simultaneous power to chill you out while it also pumps you up.

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Sat Jan 22 2022
5

Yes. First 3 songs are bangers.

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Sun Feb 06 2022
5

I just loved it!!!!😍😍😍😍

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Wed Feb 09 2022
5

Made me like electronic music

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Sun Feb 13 2022
5

ich werde Justice niemals nicht geil finden

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Thu Feb 24 2022
5

Oof took me back to first hearing them and then the covert at Union Transfer. A couple of tracks don’t reach the heights of the others, but the others are so good it’s impassible not to give this five stars.

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Tue Mar 01 2022
5

Some say soccer is just a competition between great actors. Well, I can’t act like I don’t like this album. I also can’t help but think it’s because of Peter Bresnik, who surely got me into it. A dancey time was had. Not a classic, but can’t give it less than 5

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Mon Mar 28 2022
5

The album ominous with ominous horns and timpani - like we are entering some dark nether world. And so begins a 49 minute danstravagastic journey! Thoughts as I listened… “Genesis” is an amazing opening. Intensely focused. A dark epic. Awesome. Then it translates to “Let There Be Light” that takes us from intensity to shining. This is going to be a fun ride I think… “D.A.N.C.E.” frolicked in all that new light and is so catchy and fun! And the disco party continues on a bright note with “Newjack.” All those samples! WOW! I can’t figure out what any of them are but this is some remarkable work. “Phantom” has me thinking about the soundtrack to the movie Phantasm… and as it transitions to “Phantom, Pt. II” I’m pretty sure I have a few selections for my next Halloween disco party. More lyrics from “Tthhee Ppaarrttyy” and I love that vocal! Reminds me of Ke$ha. Lots of fun. Then “DVNO” goes hard on the dance floor with a much more serious sounding vocal. What is “DVNO?” According to wikipedia it stands for “Divino.” Which didn’t really clarify anything for me… should it? “Stress” really lives up to its name. Love the music but it does build the stress! I think I hear some “Night on Disco Mountain” in there? Likely since I read that they sampled from 400 albums… crazy! (Note: Shortly after writing this I read the wikipedia page and found out I was right!) “Waters of Nazareth” is another harder dance track. I love that Justice knows how to arrange the album so that these harder tracks are modulated by the rest of the album. I like this one a lot. The finale “One Minute to Midnight” is an epic ending. Really feels like I have take a journey listening to this album. Loved the vocals. The instrumentals are off the hook. Samples run amok in the best way. Synthesizers pound and throb. Incredible production! I love this album. Sign me up to this opera-disco anytime!

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Mon Apr 25 2022
5

Electro duet from France, Justice broadened my musical horizons with this release, at the time. With the album “Cross”, it was the first time that I appreciated more “heavy” electro music. My last spin on this record was a few years ago and I have to say I'm quite impressed listening to it with my ears today. It’s 2000s electro, but nothing has aged badly. It could have come out yesterday. Finally, was this album avant-garde? We can detect bass lines and "strings" quite nu-disco. The inclusion of touches of classical music and funk makes it more timeless too, I imagine. Everything is "toned" to perfection, the drum'n'bass is in reinforced concrete, it's quite arranged and licked while allowing itself to be noisy and without concession. Nice rediscovery for me.

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Mon Apr 25 2022
5

Huge fan of Justice. They did a revolution in the Electro industry. So well produce ! +++

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Mon Apr 25 2022
5

Was very excited when I saw this as I have listened to it before and was a huge fan of D.A.N.C.E when it first played on MTV. I am not the biggest fan of electro dance, but this is punchy and funky

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Thu Apr 28 2022
5

Ok so I prepared myself for a guilty pleasure down memory lane of summer parties in 2008 - revisiting what might possibly have been just a fad of the time … but no - this is an absolute Ed Banger of a record - track after track of stylish grooves, distorted synths packaged to perfection and some downright plain good songs. End to end fantastic and nothing short of 5 stars would give this album Justice.

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Wed May 11 2022
5

The best ! I loved it before, and now just as much.

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Wed Jun 08 2022
5

funky operatic French house. The appropriate amount of crunch and positivity. still fresh after all these years!

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Fri Jun 10 2022
5

I've liked this album for almost 2 years now. It's very enjoyable, especially as a Daft Punk fan who loves well-written house music. It's also a strong album throughout, the exception maybe being that song about partying or something.

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Wed Jun 15 2022
5

"Genesis" is a certified banger. "D.A.N.C.E" is great. I also really like "One Minute To Midnight". "Phantom" and "Phantom Pt. II" are great. Pretty much the whole album is great. Don't really dislike anything on the album. The Party is probably my least favorite track.

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Thu Jul 14 2022
5

I don't need to listen to this again to know this is one of the best french house and electronic releases out there. Nothing comes close to how infectious and powerful these songs feel. It deserves to be on the electronic pantheon along Daft Punk's Discovery.

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Mon Jul 18 2022
5

Part of the new Daft Punk revival movement of the late 00’s. Lots of nostalgia but, like then, it doesn’t blow me away. Feel like there were others that did this better

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Mon Jul 18 2022
5

Very cool and a trip down memory lane. Fun to relisten to an album I didn’t really get into back when it first came out.

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Fri Jul 29 2022
5

I remember thinking this was one of the cheasiest albums I have ever heard. I think I can finally appreciate how just genuinely good it is.

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Tue Aug 23 2022
5

Funky, groovy, and unexpected. I loved it!

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Wed Aug 31 2022
5

known already, daft punk vibes

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Tue Sep 06 2022
5

Finally was able to listen to the whole album. Would definitely do it again.

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Wed Sep 07 2022
5

YEEEESSSSSS. Following on with a more 'raaargh', metal style on Daft Punk's coattails, this is a glitchier, harder affair, but has the same disco joy. Justice parts 1&2 are pure dance joy, and the rest of the album is great too, sleazy and funky. French Touch is one of those high watermarks of dance music - maybe with all the revivalism at the moment it's due a return (I say optimistically) LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT.

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Sun Sep 11 2022
5

Music that could kill a Victorian era child.

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Tue Sep 13 2022
5

One of my favourite albums of all time. 10/10

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Tue Oct 11 2022
5

It's a total banger what more can you say. D.A.N.C.E was such a tune at the time, blew my mind

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Tue Oct 11 2022
5

I was turned off by the cover art but this album is fire! Stress is too stressful but the rest are perfect for work or play.

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Wed Nov 02 2022
5

This was call electronica that I really enjoy was kinda a heavier version of daft punk

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Fri Nov 11 2022
5

I don't normally like dance, but this s*** f'in slaps

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Thu Dec 22 2022
5

Disco to dance-punk to electroclash. 4.5 but rounded up because I’ll never not be in the mood for this.

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Wed Dec 28 2022
5

Fat as fuck French funk from da future.

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Thu Jan 26 2023
5

Justice was able to make one of the greatest electronic music albums of all time by incorporating micro samples with a heavy and dark sound. To this day, there hasn't been an electronic album like it. Moreover, the drums are some of the best I've heard ever, and I can't get enough of the weird 'flipping' noises on the album. Highlights: all, but 1, 3, 5, 6, and 11.

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Wed Feb 01 2023
5

God how I loved this album in my teens. First contact was of course the big hit „D.A.N.C.E“, but the album is just one great dance experience after the other. Everything flows so seamlessly! It’s hard to overstate how new and exciting this all sounded to me back in the late 00s. There‘s probably just one song I regularly skipped: „Stress“. It‘s not bad per se, but pretty hard to listen to.

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Wed Feb 01 2023
5

D.A.N.C.E D.A.N.C.E D.A.N.C.E

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Fri Feb 10 2023
5

A fantastic dark, moody, dance, synthy techno album, verging on all the qualities that make Dark Synthwave a powerhouse genre today, just a bit earlier than id ever expected. I liked, quite literally, every song on this album.

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Fri Feb 17 2023
5

Starts off with a kind of cyberpunk-like sound, and I gotta admit, I dig it. Album kept going, and my love only grew. I thought I would dislike the songs with vocals, but they're actually pretty unironically good. Even 'TTHHEE PPAARRTTYY,' which, yeah, was a traditional party girl song. I dug it. Maybe a little grating towards the very end, but still a really solid album.

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Tue Mar 14 2023
5

Funky electro beats that defined their own genre at the time

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Wed Mar 15 2023
5

One of my favorite albums from the 2000s. This record is funky, danceable, and consistently interesting. The use of glitches is just impeccable. It's a shame they could never quite recapture the magic but this (and the live album) will always be there.

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Fri Mar 31 2023
5

I could rate "Cross" without listening - just based on my memory but every excuse is good to listen this album one more time. It is one of my favourites electronic music. Songs fading out and fading in from one to another makes listening it very smooth. I love those a little bit noisy sounds, I love this energy 12/10

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Fri Mar 31 2023
5

I think this album was my second step of my relationship with electronic music (the first one being Daft Punk). Justice with their kind-of-chaotic music opened a door to a whole new world to me. The thing I appreciate the most about Cross album is the feeling of unity of the whole album, I love it.

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Sat Apr 01 2023
5

Somewhere along the way you heard an album that changed everything – an album that transcended your personal understanding of music and showed you that there was so much more. I wasn’t unfamiliar with Justice as a group before I listened to Cross, but I hadn’t taken in much of their musical output. Even as a 12 to 13-year-old the cross iconography seemed a bit edgy, and what tracks I had encountered on Pandora hadn’t resonated and most always used up an hourly skip. It took a particularly boring day in freshman Bio to give in to Youtube’s insistence I listen to “Justice - Cross [FULL ALBUM]” after it had languished in my recommended section for a good long while. The opening brass section of ‘Genesis’ was all it took to get me locked in for the next hour and redefine what I knew an album could be. Cross’s strength is managing to build up a completely logical hourlong LP out of the most disparate, batshit-insane bloghouse tracks produced in the genre’s short span in the spotlight. Each track is a small little world in its own right, an escapade through corners bright and dark alike. ‘Genesis’ wastes no time in wiping the floor with expectations, delivering a massive brass overture that tumbles into the grimiest, slitheriest club staple known to man. Any other album would take the hint from the jet-black album cover and keep things in the dark of the dance floor for the next track, but no, ‘Let There Be Lite’ is a slippery, nervous romp that goes for blowing the tweeters instead of the subs. This constant reinvention never stops once over the LP’s 48-minute runtime – from the absolute earworm smash that is ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ to the claustrophobic ‘Stress,’ Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay create, destroy, and demolish any kind of consistency while maintaining an incredibly tight sense of cohesion. The seamless bleeding of tracks into another (something which blew my mind as a 14-year-old raised on Top 40 and Red Dirt radio) definitely helps keep this paradox afloat, each auditory assault seeming to both rise from the ashes of the previous track and simultaneously rush into existence from the vacuum. But so too does the airtight production and omnipresent sense of goddamn slickness contribute to the sense that this album knows exactly what it is and what it’s meant to do. Not one of the 400-odd microsamples across this thing feels out of place, each distorted, chopped, and twisted beat or melody fitting effortlessly into Justice’s chaotic jigsaw. What should be an absolute mess of ideas is instead a laser-guided missile made up of jagged 808s, slap bass, overdriven synths, and a few Britney Spears samples, a motley crew of influences that lands the mark every single time. The dynamism here astounds; while all loosely assembled under the dance/electronica umbrella, the tracks cut a wide swath across all parts of the era’s electronic sound. ‘DVNO’ leans into club music with a vengeance, forging a 4-on-the-floor tongue-in-cheek banger in both melody and lyrics alike. ‘Newjack’ presents a twitchy take on acid house, the sound unmistakable but the composition unstable and spastic. ‘Waters of Nazareth’ is a close personal favorite, a take-no-prisoners onslaught of gritty synths and triumphant organ that finds the album at its sonic peak (both in dB and rising action). The ‘Phantoms’ present Justice’s spirit the best, the domineering Pt. I reimagined with a dancefloor-friendly swagger on Pt. II immediately preceding. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard before – not just the brimming, untouchable textures each track contained, but a fully-realized artistic vision, a complete statement in its own right. Cross was the first album I listened to as an album, and even today I can’t dip my toes into one track without throwing the whole thing on from front to back. Justice’s opus isn’t without its Achilles (‘The Party’ is an unfortunate bit of label meddling, with Uffie hogging the spotlight on a wholly unearned and uninspired guest vocal), but this humanizes the ordeal if anything. It’s still by far the closest an album has gotten to perfection in all my listening, and little has done to touch it in the years since I clicked play on an unassuming YouTube album rip.

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Tue Apr 04 2023
5

Not my personal favorite of Kendrick but one of the best albums in general for him and rap

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Tue Apr 11 2023
5

I knew I was in for something good when I saw that Daft Punk (my favorite electronic artist) offered Justice to open for them. I generally don’t like the vocal songs - ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ is an obvious exception - and ‘The Party’ and ‘DVNO’ are the low points, although the music is still good. Otherwise, good instrumentals all around.

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Fri Apr 28 2023
5

Love this. Happy to relisten to it.

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