This unlikely collaboration began after Outkast’s Big Boi came across the US synthpop duo Phantogram’s music online – specifically, Mouthful of Diamonds. The resulting mini-album mostly plays to their respective strengths – rock-solid Big Boi raps, dreamlike vocals from Phantogram’s Sarah Barthel – amid lots of swaggering electronic hip-hop pop. Although chalk and cheese, the two very different voices seem a natural fit on Run for Your Life and Lights On, sweetly haunting pop about post-closing time female vulnerability. Rapper Daddy Fat Saxxx joins the party for the epic, orchestral stabs-laden Fell in the Sun; Barthel raps for the first time ever in Goldmine Junkie; and Run the Jewels turn up to fire the storming electro-rap Born to Shine. There are less cohesive moments – the Skrillex-driven closer Drum Machine doesn’t come off at all – but the best bits are as much of a joy to listen to as they sound as if they were to make.
