Am I really the only person who doesn’t believe that the early ’80s were the high water mark for contemporary music? A cursory listen to any ‘alternative’ radio at the moment will have you thinking that you’ve landed right smack in the middle of the mainstream in 1982. Of course, acknowledging the past is essential in order for each successive wave of artists to not be reinventing the wheel, but that’s exactly the point – don’t keep reinventing. Why is there so much music whose highest goal is to emulate?
This is not a bad release. The Emergency are happy to name their influences, and they’re fairly obvious – A Certain Ratio, ESG, The Flying Lizards, and so on. Vocally, singer Milo has an attractive monotone residing somewhere between Bernard Sumner and a mellow Joe Strummer, which suits the inverted pop-psychology culminating in ‘Spending Time’s “Life is a string of desires” lyrics, and the self-deprecating/ironic, “Switch me for you/who needs money when you’ve got looks?.” The music is fairly straight up electro-pop. The bio talks of rave and Italo-disco rhythms, but there’s not really the urgency of these later forms. ‘Spending Time’ resembles late ’80s house rhythms in a muted way, while ‘Switch Me’ goes straight in for early ’80s synth pop drums. Other than that, it’s analogue synths all ’round and yes, it’s definitely 1982.
This certainly has its charms, but in looking backwards so insistently, it does leave you feeling like you’ve listened to obscure karaoke more than something original.
Adrian Elmer
