7/10

RYAL’s Party of the Century is built around a contradiction that feels particularly suited to the moment: the world can feel unstable, exhausting and absurd, and people will still find reasons to dance.

Throughout their new release, the Brooklyn duo of Jacque Ryal and Aaron Nevezie turn that tension into a dark electronic record that moves between release and reflection. Synths, Juno bass and dancefloor momentum give the album its immediate shape, but underneath the movement sits a more unsettled emotional core.

The title-track establishes that balance brilliantly. 'Party of the Century' isn't really about escapism so much as survival through motion. Its premise that this century has been difficult, chaotic and disorientating becomes a reason to keep gathering, creating and finding small pockets of connection, and that idea runs through the rest of the album in different forms.

'The Best' looks towards the friendships that shape identity, while 'Too Much' turns inward, revisiting the long after-effects of a high school relationship and the familiar anxiety of wondering whether you were somehow excessive simply for being yourself.

'Wiseman' explores more complicated territory through fatherhood, narcissism and sobriety, while 'Temperance' pushes into a darker, more atmospheric register with the story of a missing girl from the early 1900s. The latter seems to sit furthest from the album’s dancefloor centre, drawing closer to the more shadowed emotional terrain associated with Radiohead.

But it's 'What Have We Become that expands the perspective by reflecting on 9/11 and its lasting psychological imprint, while closer 'To See Your Smile' brings the record back towards something more direct and intimate with a straightforward love song.

RYAL could easily have made 'Party of the Century' purely about aesthetic mood, but the songs reach beyond that surface. Personal memory, collective history, family, romance and self-doubt all feed into the same wider question of how do you keep living meaningfully when the world around you refuses to make much sense?

Musically, the influence of LCD Soundsystem and Little Dragon is understandable, particularly in the way rhythm and atmosphere coexist, but RYAL avoid making the record feel like an exercise in homage. Instead, it's a party record that knows exactly what everyone might be trying to forget for a few hours.

Dark, danceable and quietly reflective, it finds RYAL making uncertainty feel communal, and suggesting that sometimes getting through it means turning the music up anyway.