Arriving just over a year after their debut album
Voyage,
Generation finds
De Lux taking a more ambitious -- and more personal -- approach, resulting in a soundtrack for millennials dreading their Saturn return. As on
Voyage, Sean Guerin and Isaac Franco demonstrate their impeccable taste in music, building on their pastiche of
LCD Soundsystem and
Talking Heads with elements of even more groove-driven acts like
Can and
ESG and a stream-of-consciousness songwriting style borrowed from punk performance artist Karen Finley. This combination of looping music and free-form words makes
Generation a denser work than its predecessor: the duo peppers "LA Threshold" with musings that range from seemingly random ("Irish people hate me/Hippies don't love me") to wryly perceptive ("I'm getting older/It doesn't bother me/I've been doing it for a while"). Meanwhile, "Living in an Open Place," "Center of L.U.B.," and "Someday Now" all showcase the duo's skills at crafting hectic, elastic tracks that convey a mood of stylish anxiety. ~ Heather Phares