  I
had high expectations for Excel's "Especially for Dance,"
and it almost met them.
I have
a tendency to easily dismiss each new offering from Excel and Shadow
Mountain because I (and likely others) keep waiting for the "major
labels" to put out some earth-shattering new material that
will turn LDS music upside down. "Especially for Dance"
gets about halfway there then runs out of juice.
The
CD has 9 tracks: 3 from Julie de Azevedo, 2 from Greg Simpson, 3
from Alex Boye, and 1 from Maren Ord. From the title, I expected
to hear a club beat from the moment I put it in the CD changer.
Instead, it opens with a reggae mix of Greg's "Goodbye Babylon,"
the weakest track in my mind. It then moves slowly through "Hello
Sky" -- a great track with little to dance to -- and "Cold
Hard Streets," another song with great production but little
more than a mild beat.
I have
a difficult time imagining youth ripping it up on the stake center
dance floor to these first three songs. But that's when the groove
kicks in. Track four is a rave-like remix of Julie's "Wear
Your Love," and it's brilliant. There's a lot of ambient sound
in it to give it a full dance flavor. I wish there was more of it.
It segues nicely into a mix of Julie's "Wings," which
I believe is the same mix that appears as a hidden bonus track on
her "Hello Sky" CD. From there it moves back to "A
Million Miles Astray," one of my favorites from Alex but one
with another unfortunately weak beat.
The
mix of "Rescue Me" is the last club song and probably
my second favorite behind "Wear Your Love." A steady beat
with lots of bass really keeps this one going. The CD ends with
two ballads. "Need to Know" and "Everyday" are
two of my favorites, and I hopethey get just as much airplay as
the club songs.
Having
deejayed dances for several years, I hear lots of potential to use
this CD with the youth. It's definitely not a straight listen-through,
but I really like the direction it's going. I grew up in the prime
age of synth pop (Erasure, New Order, Depeche Mode, Anything Box,
et al.) and still find much comfort from it. "Especially for
Dance" is pretty hip when it all boils down.
It
sounds like Excel tried to include a handful of fast dance songs,
a couple sway/mid-tempo songs, and a couple slow dance tunes. Maybe
it's an indicator of my personality, but I usually have difficulty
with mid-tempo songs; I prefer it at either 140 beats per minute
fast or extra slow. Four of these nine tracks fall into the middle
category, but there are three killer dance tunes on here.
I think
this CD is worth checking out and handing to your local young mens/young
womens leaders to try out at dances. There's enough material to
turn heads. Someone is bound to notice the voice of Julie, Greg,
Alex, or Maren and realize that there is some
really cool new LDS music headed their way. Just don't expect this
to be comparable to "Mega Dance Floor Hits 2000" or the
like.
------------------------
Jared
Johnson
|
