Four years after their painfully hip debut,
Confident Music for Confident People, Australia's
Confidence Man amassed even more of their titular surety, letting their guard down and fully embracing their dance roots on the celebratory
Tilt. While the devastating cool of their first album made it feel like trying to get into a club with a high cover charge,
Tilt throws the doors open and invites everyone to the party, going full-bore on a collection of '90s house-indebted thrills that uplift listeners to another plane of pure euphoria. Stylish and swaggering, sibling vocalists Janet Planet and
Sugar Bones and producers Reggie Goodchild and Clarence McGuffie execute like seasoned veterans, recalling 2000s dance-revivalist favorites like
Hercules & Love Affair,
Scissor Sisters,
CSS, and
LCD Soundsystem. Naturally, they also dig deeper into their own influences, channeling pre-millennial forebears such as
Madonna,
Haddaway,
CeCe Peniston,
Deee-Lite, and
Ace of Base. Exuberant cuts like "Feels Like a Different Thing" and "Relieve the Pressure" build to unbearable heights, inspiring rapturous release like a church service on the dance floor. The infectious disco of "What I Like" injects playful horns and cowbell into one of the better gang vocal performances on the set, just as expertly as "Holiday" hypnotizes with synth stabs and swirling atmospherics. Fans of
Confidence Man's debut might even feel a surge of nostalgia on the throbbing, defiant "Angry Girl" and "Break It Bought It," a glittering glam throbber fit for runways and ballrooms. The cathartic release is absolutely joyous on this stylish party album, a heaping dose of maximalist escapism from a quartet that just wants you to dance your cares away. ~ Neil Z. Yeung