Pitchfork

One of those rare songs that might actually get better live, "Champion" manages fine on wax nevertheless. Check how this one commandeers the Pop Group's funk-the-world fatalism and steers it toward partied-out numbness, much the way Love Is All's "Talk Talk Talk Talk" took a similar template and gave it pop goggles. "That's right, we came to party/ Street by street, block by block," the singer announces, stupid as hell. Beats me how these guys manage to pack so much thrilling nervous energy into such a shallow program, but they do it. Lynchpins include white-knuckle hat/snare thwack-and-forth, booming bass drops, swirling synth mist, and musique concrète FX including, incredibly, those obnoxious siren blurts Funk Flex loves.