A manic pastiche. The album's title and cover art are perfect representations: Amsterdam meets Tokyo as this Dutch duo tries to deconstruct lounge music and merge it with electronica and Japanese Shibuya-kei kitsch-pop. Want samples, accordion, dub, Japanese teens singing, koto, feedback, whistling, double-time breakbeats, lush strings, Krautrock, slack key guitar, Tin Pan Alley, commercial jingles, analog synths, and record scratching? Look no further - we got it all right here. As Carl Weathers says, "Baby, you got a stew goin'!" These guys change musical direction at the drop of a hat. All that would be too much if they weren't so good at writing catchy hooks destined to be in your head for hours if not days. Bottom line: this is a fun, wild listen.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Tracks: My favorite tracks are We Love Dancing, Speeding Down The Highway, We Love To Rock, Voulez-Vous, How About the Boys?, and Groovy. Fortunately, the skippable tracks are grouped near the end, including Shout and Loveshot.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I heard Voulez-Vous around 2000 in a car ad on tv (Acura, maybe?) and was immediately hooked. No Shazam app back then, so after an extensive online search, I learned the band's name and ordered this CD. It got a lot of playing time on the road as I traveled to and from grad school classes in a neighboring town in early 2001. As such, I think it is a great fit for highway listening.
Ah, a fellow veteran of the "gotta find that song I just heard but I have no idea who it was" wars. Looks like you're a professed Shazaam Yankee and I'm a proud Soundhound Rebel.
ReplyDeleteHad to look up koto. Thanks. Now I know.
Added this one to the ever-growing "Mark recommended this" playlist.