Album Review: Hercules & Love Affair - The Feast Of The Broken Heart

Hercules' latest deals in rainbow-coloured house that seamlessly brings together disco, Hi-NRG and the straight-up jack of early Chicago. Glorifying all the conventions of these genres, there is a familiar well worn feel to these grooves but the application of a flamboyantly exuberant energy allows Hercules to produce a coherent album that offers pure nightclubbed bliss. Despite the tyranny of effervescent beats Hercules inserts more darkly hewn pop songs that deal in themes of redemption and salvation. This is a natural fit for dark horse John Grant who, despite sounding subdued, could just as well be singing on remixes of songs that didn't quite make Pale Green Ghosts. The aching I Try To Talk To You finds Grant's sad introspection surrounded by cascading piano chords eloquently drifting around a ballroom house groove. The androgynous Rouge Mary and Krystle Warren have previously dabbled in gospel and folk but under the sparkle of Hercules' mirrorball they are transformed into sassy disco divas with a lot on their minds. Rouge Mary maintains a fierce but fun presence whether he's flipping the funk on Think or glamorously dishing advice on love and life like Glinda the good witch on The Key. The feelgood electro house machinations of My Offence provide the perfect context for the sexy, smoky huskiness of Warren's voice to contemplate her crimes. Similarly she shines when ruminating on break-ups on The Light. Moving beyond the glitter and glamour there's plenty of depth and meaning to Hercules' disco.