Lo Fidelity Allstars

Well, I guess we all know now what blew their minds the first time around. The Lo Fidelity All Stars' bottled water seems to have been dosed with some happy pills. How else to explain the former big beat rock band's dive into the cheese-filled depths of disco-house throughout their sophomore full-length Don't Be Afraid of Love? "Lo Fi's in Ibiza" is just flat out wrong (though the Balearic-lovers among us won't notice) and even the funky horns'n'effects crescendo of "Deep Ellum... Hold On" can't save it from Jamie Lidell's overblown singing. Meanwhile, "Feel What I Feel" could have come out in 1983 with no alterations whatsoever. Only the opening trance punk breakbeat funeral dirge of "What You Want" and Afghan Whigs lover-man Greg Dulli's "Somebody Needs You" - turning the clichéd chorus "shake ya ass on the corner now" into an irresistible command - truly approach greatness. They claim to have been heavily influenced by Marvyn Gaye, but this album lacks his heartfelt emotion and his realness. This sounds too often like a post-ironic lark, lacking the exhilarating experimentation of their debut.