Cross (Justice album)

Cross was recorded in Paris during 2005 and 2006. The concept for the album was for it to be an "opera-disco" album. Xavier de Rosnay stated about the opera disco concept: There are three credited samples present on the album: "You Make Me Wanna Wiggle" by The Brothers Johnson was sampled for "Newjack", "Tenebre (main theme)" by Simonetti-Morante-Pignatelli was sampled for "Phantom" and "Phantom Pt. II", and "Night on Disco Mountain" by David Shire was sampled for "Stress". De Rosnay stated: == Release and promotion ==

Cross was first released on 11 June 2007 through Ed Banger Records and Because Music globally as well as Downtown and Vice Records in the United States. Two songs were released as singles before the album's release. "Waters of Nazareth" was the first single released by the group in 2005 and featured "Let There Be Light" as its B-side. "D.A.N.C.E." was the second single from the album released on 23 April 2007. The single also featured the song "Phantom", which was also released on the Ed Rec Vol. 2 compilation album prior to the release of this album. The song "D.A.N.C.E." is about and dedicated to Michael Jackson. A music video for the track "Stress", directed by Romain Gavras, was released on 1 May 2008 through the website of rapper Kanye West. The cover art of the album is an homage to the packaging of the T. Rex album, Electric Warrior, designed by the English group Hipgnosis in 1971. It was created by So Me, the creative director of the album's publisher, Ed Banger Records, who said they attempted to "emulate the style [of Electric Warrior] ... the idea of an outline that fades into dots." ==Reception==

Cross was released to critical acclaim. On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews and ratings from mainstream critics, the album received a metascore of 81 based on 25 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Jess Harvell of Pitchfork called the album a "harsh and mostly instrumental set that nonetheless plays like the ideal crossover electronic-pop record", noting that "Justice knows how to sequence a dance album to avoid drag and boredom." saying: "As dance music, not my idea of a good time, but as electronic pop, so much trickier, sillier and more kinetic than Kraftwerk." At the 50th Grammy Awards, Cross was nominated for Best Electronic/Dance Album, while "D.A.N.C.E." was nominated for Best Dance Recording and Best Video. The album was also nominated for the 2007 Shortlist Prize, eventually losing out to The Reminder by Feist. Cross was ranked at second place by Planet Sound in their Best Albums of 2007 list. Pitchfork placed Cross at number 15 on their Top 50 Albums of 2007 list, as well as at number 107 on their list of the top 200 albums of the 2000s. Rolling Stone ranked it at number 24 on their list of the 30 Greatest EDM Albums of All Time. The album has been included in the book compilation 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. == Legacy ==

In October 2020, EDM artist Zedd stated "if there was ever one album I would recommend combining production and musicality; it would be Justice's Cross. I still feel it sounds better than most electronic made today." In 2022, a 15th anniversary reissue of the album was released along with six bonus and formerly unreleased tracks. The D.A.N.C.E. EP was released alongside it, featuring all remixes of the titular song. ==Track listing==

Weekly charts Year-end charts ==Certifications==