Let us pause for a moment and offer props to Bobby Orlando, the mad genius who helped launch The Pet Shop Boys (complicated by litigation, sadly), The Flirts, and Divine. Master of American Hi-NRG in the early 80s, his eighth-note basslines still resonate to this day in the burgeoning retrolectro scene , and certainly his sound was the fuse of electroclash. This was a man who produced and played on the original "West End Girls," "Jukebox," "Native Love," "Whisper to a Scream" (the poolside party jam in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2, so yes, my geek credentials are flawless), and "I'm So Hot For You" (which contemporary dance fans would know as Junior Jack's "Da Hype"). He was also the man responsible for what may be the most diffident and unpleasant dance single ever (Claudja Barry's "Ain't Gonna Miss You") but let's not hold that against him.
Bobby has a sound, and it still works. It's actually quite brilliant, because he chose the exact moment in the dance music zeitgeist to drop his new solo album. His sound now seems both retro and futuristsic at the same time, and this record's four-to-the-floor dance epics pound away deliciously. "Vanity" is a personal fave, as are "darkness" and "Excited," all of which deliver that Bobby O synthpoop hands-in-the-air feeling.
But this isn't just a dance album. There's rock, funk, and balladry, all present and all examples of great pop songcraft. The opener, "Catch a Falling Knife," sounds more like classic New Order than much of the newest New Order record does, and that can be hard to process. But anyone interested in a versatile pop record that knows how to master many genres would do well to look past the unfortunate cover art and spend some time with one of the greats of dance music.
