It seems now a day everybody is climbing on the 80's revival wagon and the last addition to the bunch are the dance oriented producers Groove Armada with their new album Black Light. For me they have always been like a mixed bag of candies, inside you can find a variety of flavors you absolutely love, some that are o.k., and some that would make you remember what you had for breakfast. My first encounter with the British duo, Andy Cato and Tom Findlay, was in my trip-hop and downtempo period in the end of the 90's with their second album Vertigo. It was a very varied work that ranged from funky-laid-back-groovy rhythms to dance-floor-booty-shaking-sista-hand-in-the-air tunes. I was more interested, in the laid-back down tempo side of GA, not so very much in the dance floor grooves. Because of this fusion of styles I lost interest in the duo's later work... until now.
Bryan Ferry is one of my all time favorite male artists, because of it's seductive and sophisticated solo body of work. When I learned that he had worked with Groove Armada in one of the albums tracks I had to dig deeper and listen to this unusual collaboration.
The track is called 'Shameless' and for my surprise it is one of the most sexy dance piece I have heard in a long time. The vocals and mood are classic Ferry, but the pulsating dance rhythms give it an almost hypnotic nature. Excellent track. I am almost sure this will be a hit in the clubs and the subject of many remixes. I read in the official Bryan Ferry website that he will put his version of the track on his upcoming release with a slightly different name, 'Shameless (Rock n' Roll Desire)'.
Thanks to 'Shameless' I got the album and as it title suggests, it is darker than any other GA album. It is clearly inspired in the dance and synth-pop scene from the 80's, here you can hear traces of OMD, David Bowie, Propaganda, even Fleetwood Mac and many more acts of that decade. Thank Got it doesn't contain any more rap and reggae vocals!
In it's whole it is a very solid pop-bliss album, that's enjoyable from start to finish, full of fat synthesizers, great vocalists that suit each song perfectly and catchy sing-a-long lyrics. This time GA has done it right, although not very original and not ahead of the gender, they took all the right elements and blended them in just the right amounts.
It's difficult setting for a favorite song with such a solid collection of tracks, but if I had to choose three I would say 'Shameless' for the reasons described earlier, then 'Fall Silent' with great dramatic vocals from Nick Littlemore and the melancholic melody that reminds of M83's 'Kim & Jessie'. The third one would be 'Paper Romance' where Fenech-Soler and SantSaviour share the vocal duties in this upbeat track that would be comfortable in an 80's teen movie like The Breakfast Club. The rest of the songs are great, specially the ones where Larrabee sings, her voice has a resemblance to Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blond.
Black Light doesn't have any of the downtempo I liked from Vertigo or later albums, instead it is almost completely danceable, but in this case I wouldn't change a single beat. 100% recommendable!
Fall Silent
Paper Romance
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