Pacifica

With their third studio album, Pacifica, the Australian electro duo The Presets have created handsomely crafted dance music that’s enveloped in '80s synth-pop gloss without succumbing to complete throwback trappings. “Youth in Trouble” opens with percolating keyboard tones and muted handclap beats that recall early New Order. But the fresh production mix and Julian Hamilton’s smooth, unaffected vocals tip the scales on the side of originality. The bewitching “Ghosts” moves at a slower pace, wrapped in the darker hues of nightlife neon reflected in city street puddles. This shadowy and grimy elegance is perpetuated throughout Pacifica, giving the album a sweaty, smeared-eyeliner feel not explored in The Presets' preceding recordings. "Promises" plays like a sonic hair-of-the-dog cocktail mixed by Rick Astley, while “Push” blends those shopping-mall Casio tones with enough progressive house and trance flourishes to score all kinds of after-party mischief. “Fast Seconds” interweaves similarly sinister moods with bubbling house accouterments to make for an interesting contrast of textures. The Presets change up the mood with the more dance floor–friendly “Fall.”