Nothing Fancy

I'm perfectly entertained by Chromeo's Fancier Footwork (Vice), but the two-disc set brings to mind another notion of "album." Like a photo album or stamp album, Fancier Footwork is a place for Chromeo to store music, video and remixes. With that much material, any notion of the album as a larger, cohesive body of work is dispelled, but perhaps that's sensible. In iPod days, that may be the role that may albums serve, just as they did in the infancy of the vinyl album. In this case, it's nice to know I have the videos if I ever choose to watch them, and I can imagine making a mix with one or two tracks from the remix disc. I've pulled five tracks from the original release for my iPod - I prefer their early '80s electro funk to the remixes - and am amused enough by their faux tough talk and abuse of Auto-Tune that I'll enjoy the other tracks on the occasion when I put on the CD.