Review of Ratatat

t.c.3

I often listen to Ratatat while doing homework or studying because their upbeat music keeps me awake and their music doesn' (or didn't) have vocals, which keeps me from getting distracted (and having to fight the urge to sing along!). Because the majority of the Ratatat I listen to is background music for my studying, I don't often listen to the music itself with a critical ear, however, in a technosonics class that I am taking, we were asked to review digital music and immediately Ratatat came to mind. After some research online, I found that many people see the release of the duo's third album, LP3, as a turning point in there music, so I will try to compare their albums Classics and LP3 (my favorite being Classics).
Ratatat uses three main instruments in their music, a guitar, a bass guitar and a synthesizer (which varies between songs), and their music is an alternative electronic rock mix that incorporates these instruments to create funky, upbeat, digital, fun songs.
In their album, Classics, their second album, the pair plays the same style of music as their debut album, Ratatat, using the three above mentioned instruments. On LP3, however, the duo changes to more percussion based music, and the processions and beats become more prevalent This can be seen quite clearly in the song, "Mi Viejo," where the rhythmic percussion becomes quite noticeable in the second half of the song (I found myself really tapping along the first time I heard it while studying, which I normally don't do).
Aside from the percussion, the other noticeable difference that I noticed between the two albums is the way in which LP3 seems to be more fluid and "(mainstream) musical," whereas I found the first two albums to be much more raw and choppy (in a good way, of course).
I would be interested in hearing what other people have to say about the comparison of the two albums.