The Brooklyn duo's 2004 debut is an ungainly beast: Precise, stutter-funk beats split the difference between Timbaland and Neptunes, while the guitar flounces with the fuzzed floweriness of Queen's Brian May. It's such a WTF? approach that you have to respect it, even if the songs grate in large doses. With 2006's Classics (the chutzpah!), the hip-hop rhythms are de-emphasized, while the melodies and production are more sumptuous, with the tracks taking on an even loftier classical grandeur (cello and harpsichord appear on a few songs).
Usually, no vocals equals commercial suicide. But Ratatat tours the world, plays sizable venues (including the Guggenheim Museum), and remixes mainstream hip-hop artists (Jay-Z, T.I.). So maybe minds are slightly expanding.
