Hercules and Love Affair - Omnion

The Guardian 80

(Atlantic)

On paper, the dance collective Hercules and Love Affair’s fourth album seems like a risky endeavour. The topic of mainstay Andy Butler’s relapse into drug addiction and his recovery hangs over Omnion. It should be a tough subject for an album thick with four-to-the-floor beats to address – who wants to be reminded of the downside of hedonism while lost on the dancefloor? – but Butler has form in hitching difficult topics to dance music. The gorgeous 2014 track I Try to Talk to You featured John Grant singing about his HIV-positive status. Here, on My Curse and Cure and Wild Child, the lyrical remorse chafes intriguingly against the musical euphoria, while the title track sets Sharon Van Etten’s affecting vocals against swooning electronics. Elsewhere, Butler’s ability to co-opt unlikely voices to his musical world is as impressive as ever, from the Lebanese indie band Mashrou’ Leila to the Horrors’ frontman Faris Badwan. The latter’s appearance on the gospel-infused, filthy-minded Controller is as improbable as the end result is fantastic.

Pitchfork 77

Andy Butler’s fourth album as Hercules and Love Affair delivers the subtle genre pivot that was so needed to reinvigorate their standing as the elder gatekeepers of club music history.

The Guardian 60

(Mr Intl/Skint/BMG)

Disco has long been about more than dancing. Hercules and Love Affair (2008) was born of mainman Andy Butler’s first recovery from addiction. Success plunged him back into the lifestyle. Omnion, this New York outfit’s fourth album, finds Butler living clean again, producing slinky and varied club bangers alongside off-plan songs with greater undertow. From Anohni onwards, guest singers have figured; here, the Horrors’ Faris Badwan gets sultry on the synth-pop of Controller, while Sharon Van Etten voices Butler’s tremulous side on the title track, one gilded with unexpected, lyrical brass. The overall impression is still a kind of fretful hedonism, in which returnee vocalist Rouge Mary soulfully verbalises “a choir of pain” on Wild Child while Butler’s beats percolate relentlessly on.