Cross (Justice album)

Background and promotion

Cross was recorded in Paris during 2005 and 2006. The concept for the album was for it to be an "opera-disco" album. Xavier de Rosnay stated about the opera disco concept:

We stuck to our original idea to make a 2007 opera-disco album, even if we are conscious that some tracks don't sound like proper disco at first listen. The best example is the song "Waters of Nazareth", which does not sound like disco when you listen to it for the first time. But if you forget that everything is distorted, the bass lines are just really basic disco patterns.

Two songs were released as singles before the album's release. "Waters of Nazareth" was the first single released by the group in 2005 and featured "Let There Be Light" as its B-side. "D.A.N.C.E." was the second single from the album released on 23 April 2007. The single also featured the song "Phantom", which was also released on the Ed Rec Vol. 2 compilation album prior to the release of this album. The song "D.A.N.C.E." is about and dedicated to Michael Jackson. A music video for the song "Stress", directed by Romain Gavras, was released on 1 May 2008 through the website of rapper Kanye West. It was subject to heavy criticism upon release and received a ban from French television due to its violent content.

There are three credited samples present on the album: "You Make Me Wanna Wiggle" by The Brothers Johnson was sampled for "Newjack", "Tenebre (main theme)" by Goblin was sampled for "Phantom" and "Phantom Pt. II", and "Night on Disco Mountain" by David Shire was sampled for "Stress". However, the band has stated there are many samples in the form of "microsamples" present on the album which the author of the original composition would not recognize their work was sampled. De Rosnay stated that as many as 400 albums were used as sampled material and spoke about the microsampling process:

...we do sample really small bits of things that nobody can recognize. Say we use the "In Da Club" hand clap - not even 50 Cent would notice but if you listen to "Genesis", the first track [on Cross], there are samples of Slipknot, Queen and 50 Cent, but they are such short samples no one can recognize them. The ones from Slipknot, for example, are just tiny bits of the voice.

Reception

Cross received critical acclaim from critics. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews and ratings from mainstream critics, the album received a metascore of 81 based on 25 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone stated that "with loads of melodrama and not a moment of subtlety, Justice define the new-jacques swing." Jess Harvell of Pitchfork Media called the album a "harsh and mostly instrumental set that nonetheless plays like the ideal crossover electronic-pop record", noting that "Justice knows how to sequence a dance album to avoid drag and boredom." Michaelangelo Matos of The A.V. Club described it as "an engaging study in contrasts and a killer party record." In his consumer guide for MSN Music, critic Robert Christgau gave the album an honorable mention () rating, indicating a "likable effort consumers attuned to its overriding aesthetic or individual vision may well enjoy". Christgau stated: "As dance music, not my idea of a good time, but as electronic pop, so much trickier, sillier and more kinetic than Kraftwerk."

At the 50th Grammy Awards, Cross was nominated for Best Electronic/Dance Album, while "D.A.N.C.E." was nominated for Best Dance Recording and Best Video. The album was also nominated for the 2007 Shortlist Prize, eventually losing out to The Reminder by Feist. Cross was ranked at second place by Planet Sound in their Best Albums of 2007 list. Pitchfork Media placed Cross at number 15 on their Top 50 Albums of 2007 list, as well as at number 107 on their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 24 on their list of the 30 Greatest EDM Albums of All Time. The album has been included in the book compilation 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

In popular culture

The track "Genesis" has been sampled several times throughout mainstream media. It was featured in an episode of the television series Shark and in television advertisements for Cadillac and Levi's. The song also appears in Electronic Arts' video game Need for Speed: Undercover, was used in a gameplay trailer for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II and was featured in Sony PlayStation's PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale E3 trailer as well as the SDCC and Gamescom trailers, "Genesis" also appears in the trailer and ending credits of the films Echelon Conspiracy and Punisher: War Zone. It was featured in episodes of Top Gear, in series 13, episode 3, where Jeremy Clarkson tests the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series and series 17, episode 1, where he tests the BMW 1 Series M Coupe. It was used for a BMW promotional video of the M3. It is also featured on the cinema advertisement for series 3 of the E4 comedy The Inbetweeners. "Genesis" also appeared on the Season 5 Top 10 of America's Got Talent for Fighting Gravity's act. It has also been used numerous times during Formula 1 Grand Prix racing TV coverage as background music during narrated informational segments prior to the race. It was also featured on an episode of the BBC crime drama Silent Witness in series 18. It was also used in advertisements for Blizzard's Overwatch.

"Phantom Pt. II" was used for a Telus commercial in 2007, as the intro music to Channel 5's Football Italiano, sampled by Swizz Beatz for a 2010 Gucci Mane song called "Gucci Time", and featuring in Richard Hammond's review of the Holden Maloo ute during an episode of Top Gear. The Soulwax remix of the track was the final boss track in Tap Tap Dance. The song was also in a commercial for Modern Marvels exclusively for view on H2.

"Waters of Nazareth" appears in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV under the Electro Choc radio station and in DJ Hero 2. Jay-Z's song "On to the Next One" from the album The Blueprint 3 features a sample of "D.A.N.C.E.". The Game also used a sample of "Genesis" in his song "American Dreams". "Genesis" appears in multiple set lists in the DJ Hero video game. "Newjack" was featured in the Cartoon Network block "You Are Here", at the beginning of the program. "Let There Be Light" is featured in the video game Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. "D.A.N.C.E" is also featured in Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2, Just Dance 2 and Forza Horizon 3. The song was also used in college basketball commercial for ESPN as part of its "It's Not Crazy, It's Sports" promotion. "Stress" is used in the soundtrack of the video game NBA 2K13.

Track listing

All songs written by Justice, except:
"D.A.N.C.E.", co-written by Jessie Chaton,
"TThhEe PPaARRtTYY", co-written with Uffie and Feadz, and
"DVNO", co-written by Mehdi Pinson.

Samples:
"Newjack" – "You Make Me Wanna Wiggle" (1980) by the Brothers Johnson
"Phantom" and "Phantom Pt. II" – "Tenebre" (1982) by Goblin, from the Dario Argento film of the same name
"Stress" – "Night on Disco Mountain" (1977) by David Shire and Jocko Homo (music video introduction) by Devo