Album Review: Dance Called Memory by Nation of Language

It's also their Sub Pop debut and a reunion with producer Nick Millhiser, a pairing that keeps the trio's pulse steady even as the band hints at risk. What's here is very good - sometimes gorgeous - but often feels like exquisitely rendered déjà vu, a mirror held up to their previous three albums when I kept hoping for the bold pop turn their songs have always suggested. The opening stretch signals breadth.

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Nation of Language surprised everyone with 2023's Strange Disciple, the band's third album. Executed with genuine passion and meticulous craft, the band delivered an album that felt both deeply familiar and refreshingly vital. With the shimmering arpeggios and propulsive basslines bearing the unmistakable influence of New Order, a deep emotional resonance that echoes the introspective grandeur of early Tears for Fears, and the sophisticated melancholy and understated pop genius of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Pet Shop Boys, it's a masterclass in the synthesis of the euphoric, bouncy synth rock that defined much of the early to mid-'80s.

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Nation of Language don’t just take their musical cues from the post-punk era of the late 1970s and early 1980s; they have also been operating on a timetable that seems inspired by it. Since their debut, Introduction, Presence, in 2020, the Brooklyn-based synthpop group have been on a steady cycle, with a new album appearing every year or two, followed by a tour. It is a throwback work ethic that keeps them in the public eye.

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