Album Reviews

If his goal was to make an album that feels as good as it sounds, mission accomplished for Tom Holkenborg. The one-man band/production team/live force most-widely recognized as Junkie XL has delivered an electro-charged colossus with Booming Back At You, a 12-track surge of high-octane breaks, turbo-charged beats and red hot, infectious energy. Highlighting an array of vocalists as diverse as the album's tracks, Lauren Rocket [of Fox TV's The Next Great American Band finalist Rocket] sexes up the full-body slam of "More" with a lascivious twist, Tommy Vext [formerly of extreme metal outfit Divine Heresy] punches through the hard-driving pulse of opening track "Booming Right At You," and Willoughby and Nicole Morier [Electrocute] lend a more refined and dignified dance air to "Not Enough."

Big beats are broken up by Steve Aoki's terse vocal blasts on "1967 Poem," Electrocute reappears to propel the sultry vocal swagger of "Mad Pursuit," and Junkie takes it solo on the rapid ascent and reverberations of the Gary Glitter, "Rock & Roll Part II"-flavored "Clash." But on an album of standout tracks, the biggest is a run through Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Cities in Dust" that wraps Rocket's vocals around Junkie's adrenaline rush of a rework. "Rock more, roll more…" sings Rocket on "More." Booming Back At You accomplishes that–And more.

—Paul Gargano
05.09.08