“The Nightmare,” the opening track of their new album, reveals the problem almost instantly. It’s built around a bubbly, effervescent ascending melody that reminds me of SOPHIE ’s “ Nothing More to Say ” with all the fun ripped out, while a flimsy voice sings, “Welcome to the nightmare.” The vocals scan as inhuman, the drums don’t really do much, and all the synths seem just a little off, everything brushed with a plasticky sheen that sounds like it came right off the assembly line, made by robotic arms for robotic arms.

That uneasy feeling settles over the rest of Infinite Now like suffocating humidity. No matter how hard the duo tries to get things going, the spark never catches: Build-ups and drops land with a thud, because how can you have payoff without tension? The hooks are aggravating because the vocals are aggravating, like on “Lose Control,” a pale imitation of Daft Punk ’s “One More Time,” that group’s painstaking ingenuity replaced by “it’s just a tool” deflection.…