Evan Mast and Mike Stroud, the duo that make up the mostly instumental Dance-Rock outfit Ratatat, are back with their sophomore release Classics. Classics delves generally into the same territory that their self-titled debut of two years ago did, sounding somewhere between Electronic acts such as Daft Punk and M83, and more Rockier instrumental outfits such as !!! (Chick Chick Chick) and Out Hud.

When Ratatat's debut came out a couple of years back, it sounded much more fresh and hip. Now that we're on to their little game, Classics doesn't feel like much more than a rehashing of old ideas. Maybe the lazyness of the last Daft Punk album is rubbing off on more outfits like this than originally thought. Not that Classics is a bad album - it's actually quite a fun steering wheel thumping, head-noddin' good listen at times. It's just that there doesn't seem to be a whole hell of lot to distinguish one song from the next. I know it says there are 10 tracks here, but I defy anyone to tell me there's much of a difference to any of these tunes.

True "Wildcat" has samples of panthers roaring, but that's about it. Each track plods along with layers of guitar and keyboards, but with hardly any flare or flashes of orginality. Classics is a decent enough album to avoid the sophomore slump dumpster, but with it's frustrating absence of diversity, the album might just as well have been entitled Classic.