On Revelation, two well-established electronic outfits – New York’s The Knocks and Toronto’s Dragonette (aka Martina Sorbara) – come together and throw a fun eighties-drenched dance-party that is comfortingly predictable for someone looking for just this kind of retro experience.
Themes of love and heartbreak are standard in the stereotypically eighties musical stories that this collective tells within the album's bubbly synth-powered pop songs. The more bouncy numbers like "Revelation," “Foolish Pleasure,” and “Let My Love Open The Door” stand out more than the slower sentimental ones like “Thorns” and “The Hero.”
Sorbara’s vocals project the perfect blend of vulnerability, naivety, and playfulness, as she sings the cheesy “eighties” lyrics so convincingly that you actually enjoy listening to her words in all their tackiness.
There is definitely a huge element of derivatives in this album; but heck, it doesn’t pretend to be anything it is not. And this honesty is a big part of its appeal.
However, according to the marketing agency promoting the album, “Revelation is supposed to be a satirical look at the homogenization of marketing and art in the modern landscape, presented through the lens of executives selling magic pill products by way of corporate doublespeak and overt sales tactics”…holy crap!
This lofty conceptual idea is definitely not reflected in the record’s bubblegum dance-pop numbers, whose primary focus appears to make sure the listeners have a good time. A whiff of this tongue-in-cheek mockery however can be seen on “Keynote Address” – which, by the way, is just shy of a minute-and-a-half long – that pretends to be an advertisement selling a miracle cure to life’s woes. Even then, its satire is barely noticeable while you are too busy having fun listening to it.
Revelation does not need to be deep to be enjoyable. Its enjoyment truly lies in checking your brain at the door and simply dancing to it mindlessly.