Electronica artist Romain Turzi took the time and consideration to title all 13 tracks here using the letter “A”. Isn’t that special? Well, no. And while the opening number and title track builds slowly a la Daft Punk, initially there aren’t nearly the oodles of hooks and loops that make dance music occasionally interesting. Slow, plodding and ambient, the tune gets the album off to a rather listless start. Things improve moderately with the quirky, spaghetti Western-flavored “Alpes” that has some Leonard Cohen-ish vocals while “Animal Signal” is an urgent little early Cure-like ditty which works well. The songs are a hit-and-miss affair. “Are You Thinking About Jesus?” has one warming up to it but “Afghanistan” belongs in a cave in said country. Turzi never repeats himself, which is a good thing judging by the stylish, electro-pop of “Acid Taste” and the equally pleasing “Aigle”. Perhaps the album’s best moments comes during the catchy “Amadeus” which is anything but classical. “Authority 17” sounds a bit like Primal Scream’s “Kowalski”. Turzi concludes with a lengthy “Axis of Good” on a record which on the whole is rather pleasing.

• "Acid Test" MP3