This sprawling new epic from the Deep Dish boys, "George Is On," sees the twosome incorporating a variety of Rock influences to their trademark echoing House sound. Opening track "No Stopping For Nicotine" sets the pace with its laid-back beat, gritty guitar lines, and grungy male vocal from Richard Morel, a feel that is retained with the funky yet sweeping "Sacramento," highlighted by warmly hummed background vocals and a remorseful storyline. Morel also contributes vocals to the melancholic "Everybody's Wearing My Head," one of the songs that really emphasizes how much stronger "George Is On" is lyrically compared to than the average dance album as well as regards its trippy narrative on love lost.
"Flashdance" (not a cover of the Irene Cara soundtrack standard, but of Shandi Sinnamon's "He's a Dream" from the same film) introduces Anousheh Khalili's vocals to the album and lets her sassily yearning delivery add its unique flavor to the proceedings, giving the track a distinctly backwoods flavor yet still retaining a strong dancefloor consciousness. Khalili is also featured on "Awake Enough," a moody midtempo stomper with a slight Alternative Rock vibe to it that would fit especially well in the world of college radio, and the gorgeously aching single "Say Hello" which also features her piano work atop the thumping rhythms
Now of course the most ink dedicated to this album will probably go to the Stevie Nicks collaboration where Ms. Nicks kindly reprises her vocal from the Fleetwood Mac evergreen "Dreams." Deep Dish's production stays true to the feel of the original song while at the same time successfully grafting the Soft Rock standard onto a discotheque-friendly new House arrangement (that will likely prove either a revelation or a sacrilege, depending on your disposition), but gradually-building instrumental cuts like "Swallow Me" are just as worthy of note with their melding of beautiful instrumentation with four-on-the-floor beats that hearken back to Deep Dish's own earlier compositions like the magnificent "Stay Gold."
"Dub Shepherd" stands more as a straight-up club track with its repetitively hypnotic structure and vocal snippets from Janis Leahy spread sparsely over the Tribal beats, as does the throbbing "Sexy Ill" which seems squarely aimed at late night big room club play.
The actual final track on the first CD for "George Is On" is "Flashing For Money" (credited to Deep Dish Vs Dire Straits) that has the vocal from "Flashdance" laid over a looped guitar line from Dire Straits' 80s monster "Money For Nothing." Now, "Flashing For Money" isn't really bad, but thematically the track does not feel consistent with the overall mood of "George Is On" and its inclusion on the first disc of the album feels like an unnecessarily gratuitous nod to the current rage for tracks based on cut-up 80s anthems when the cut would have felt more appropriate on the bonus disc, which features numerous other takes of "Flashdance" and "Say Hello" by the likes of Paul Van Dyk and the Hoxton Whores as well as videos of both songs.
