Escort (2012)

Canadian Import

Escort is a Brooklyn-based indie disco orchestra. That's right, disco music. Great songwriting, performances, and production that offers up a collection of tunes that wouldn't have been out of place in the late '70s (real musicians, no sampling, no autotune). The group came about when two club DJ's wanted to make records in the spirit of the old ones they normally sampled.

And you just know I couldn't pass up a release from a disco revival band. I'm too old for a night out disco dancing, but I think I might risk it if Escort was playing.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart:  Did not chart

Tracks: 11 tracks, 53 minutes. I like 'em all because its just so easy to listen to, but I'll pick Caméleon Chameleon, a fantastic remake of A Sailboat In The Moonlight, A Bright New Life, and Karawane as the top tracks. It's not the best song on the album, but the video for All Through The Night was named to several "best of" lists because of its use of archival Muppet Show footage.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  I came across this album when Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at #40 of its list of the 50 Best Albums of 2012:

Disco never died. It was just hiding out in Brooklyn, where this 17-piece club orchestra crafted its debut set of glitter-caked grooves. In a year when we lost such giants of the genre as Donna Summer and Robin Gibb, there is something reassuring about how faithfully tunes like "Cocaine Blues" and "Starlight" channel the sleek, sexy sound of Studio 54 at its peak, down to the last high-hat and brass flourish. "A knife, a fork, a bottle and a cork/That's the way we spell New York," vocalist Adeline Michèle sings. Up-all-night civic pride rarely sounds so fun.

How am I supposed to pass that up? I didn't and this disc has been in heavy rotation for the past month.