Falling somewhere between Mark Ronson’s clubby cornucopia and LMFAO’s morning-after headache, the Swedish group Teddybears throw a whole mess of sounds onto their second album. Armed with synths and kinda-famous guest stars (including B.o.B. and Cee Lo Green), they zip around genres, noises, and styles, never settling into anything long enough on Devil’s Music to give you a clear idea what they’re all about. They like electro-pop; they also seem to have a thing for hazy psychedelia and big drum beats. And they’re way into future shock. Eve gets all funky-robot on “Rocket Science,” and they drift through the cosmos on the space-bubbly “Glow in the Dark.” Best are the trippy “Crystal Meth Christians” (with the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne) and “Cardiac Arrest” (featuring Robyn), where the stars really do shine.
— Michael Gallucci
This article appears in Jul 6-12, 2011.
