Modular Interscope
2007
New Chance
About This Album
Awash in balmy, neon grooves and exultant, kaleidoscopic scraps of melody, the Tough Alliance's U.S. album debut and second proper pop full-length is neither a dramatic change of direction nor an astounding leap forward from the already quite excellent The New School -- but it is a revelation nevertheless. As effortless, and effortlessly enjoyable, as it is perplexing to define, its remarkably fresh-feeling fusion of dance music and classic pop has all the omnivorous eclecticism, bright-eyed playfulness, and epic emotional earnestness of Saint Etienne's Foxbase Alpha and Primal Scream's Screamadelica (it could be coincidental, but TTA covered a C-86-era Primal Scream tune on an early EP.) It's also more than a little reminiscent of those landmark albums in sound and style, grounding its blend of (among other things) dub, '60s pop, reggae, new age, and synth pop in a foundation of early-'90s club beats and hip-house. Those dusty grooves, along with the preponderance of '80s-style synthesizers (though by this point they ought to be as strongly associated with the '00s as the '80s) and an outmoded production, give A New Chance a curiously faded, antiquated quality, one that doesn't feel tired so much as refreshingly anachronistic, though it might be more accurate to say it feels removed from time entirely.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4 and 7)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.