Plaza Nights have ideas — too many of them. Concrete Garden crams a decade of dance music history into forty-eight minutes and dares you to keep up. When it works, it is exhilarating. When it does not, it is exhausting.
A tighter edit would have made a better record. But there is something admirable about a band that errs toward generosity.
When it works it is exhilarating; when it does not, exhausting.
The arrangement
Across the record’s ten tracks, the production favours space over density. Instruments enter, state their case, and leave. It is the kind of mix that sounds better the louder you play it and the more carefully you listen.
The verdict
Not every track lands, and a couple overstay their welcome. But the best moments here are the kind you find yourself returning to weeks later, which is the only test of an album that finally matters.
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