You can’t talk about Vincent Belorgey, AKA Kavinsky, without bringing up Drive, so I’m just going to do it right away. If it wasn’t for Kavinsky’s fantastic Nightcall being in the opening credits for Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 film Drive (One of my favorite movies), no one would really give a damn about Kavinsky. Much like that movie, a lot of Kavinsky’s music relies on an older aesthetic. Specifically, one of a 1980s variety. However, with this album, that aesthetic doesn’t do much to enhance the music. It really acts as a crutch.

If you’ve ever heard anything by Justice or Daft Punk, Kavinsky is basically making the same music. The second track, Blizzard, sounds like something Justice would have released when D.A.N.C.E. blew up. Which is the fatal flaw with OutRun. Nothing feels fresh or original. Aside from Nightcall, none of these tracks do anything original. It’s mostly just french house with 80s synths injected into them.

It does give off a strange mood, and it’s an album that makes a whole lot of sense. It sounds like the soundtrack to an awesomely cheesy 80s flick. When I listened to it, it felt like I was wearing a leather jacket, driving a sweet car, chasing bad guys. So I’ll give it that. It also works as great mood music. Much like the Drive soundtrack, this feels like it would be enhanced when played at night, because a lot of it has an ominous cool to it.

The album does get a bit repetitive. Most of the songs are really just 1/2 songs repeated twice. None of the song structures are remotely interesting, which is typical of House music. It could have been done a bit less obviously, however. There are some tracks that stick out. Nightcall, of course, is still a phenomenal track that, in my opinion, sounds great even without the movie backing it. Plus, the single ProtoVision is an absolute explosion of synthesizers, house, and adrenaline. It’s a really fun track with a lot of attitude, and it sounds great.

There are some vocalists here and there, and the quality varies. The vocals on Odd Look are OK, but are ridiculously compressed and flattened by the production. Also, I don’t know who’s rapping on Suburbia, but he’s terrible. The rapping overshadows pretty much everything underneath it, the chorus is dopey, and the lyrics abruptly pull you out of that 80s mindset the album tries so hard to maintain. I mean, I’m pretty sure he’s talking about Facebook at some point. It just doesn’t feel right.

So, OutRun is really just OK, nothing more, nothing less. It’s rather underwhelming, especially given how great Nightcall is. After Chromatics were featured on the same soundtrack, they released a phenomonal masterpiece in the form of Kill For Love. I just wish Kavinsky could have pulled off the same.

Summary: OutRun is OK, with some alright house tracks, but it comes across as a bit underwhelming, with a huge discrepancy between album highlights and lowlights.

Choice Cuts- Nightcall, ProtoVision

3/5

Stream Dead Cruiser below. OutRun is out now on Record Makers