FEATURE:
For Your Pleasure
IN THIS PHOTO: Jessie Ware
The New Post-Disco Wave and Much-Needed Escapism in 2020
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THIS will be a fairly short feature…
but, as this year has been a pretty hard one, there is a collective of artists who have provided music with something thrilling, body-moving and energised. There have been great Pop albums from Georgia (Seeking Thrills), and Charli XCX (how i'm feeling now) that has taken the genre in new directions. They have both been nominated for a Hyundai Mercury Prize, and I think it is clear that people – and the Mercury judging panel – are embracing music that is not only interesting and original, but also has a positive edge. I think last year’s best was defined by a more political edge, but 2020, to me, feels more about musicality and something warmer. Certainly, there have been some great albums that are personal and rich, but there is an emphasis on movement and physicality. I recently wrote a feature that reacted to the news that Pop music is getting happier and faster. This has been long-overdue, and I feel lockdown and COVID-19 has changed music in so many ways. One other thing that is apparent is how Post-Disco is burning strong. It is said that Disco died on 12th July, 1979 - rock D.J. Steve Dahl donned a combat helmet to blow up a crate of disco records, a stunt now known as Disco Demolition. Of course, Disco kept going, but it was definitely not too long for the world.
At a time when Punk and more political music was dominating, Disco was losing some of its lustre. Post-Disco sort of describes the period between 1979-1984, where an underground movement of Disco music of stripped-down vibes and radically different sounds came through on the East Coast of the U.S. Getting to my point, and the spirit of that period lived on, and many artists in 2020 are shaping Post-Disco in their own vision. I think one of the most pleasing and satisfying musical breakthroughs this year has been from the likes of Jessie Ware, Dua Lipa and Kylie Minogue. Minogue releases her new album, DISCO, on 4th November. Minogue is no stranger to Disco sounds, and albums like Light Years (2000), and Fever (2001) mixed Synth, Pop and Disco to incredible effect. Minogue shared her new single, Say Something, this week, and it is almost futuristic Disco; it has an edge of her earlier work, but there is something unique working away. I am looking forward to hearing her fifteen studio album and what it offers up. Jessie Ware’s incredible album, What’s Your Pleasure?, was released in June. Although I have not mentioned the amazing Róisín Murphy – who is masterful when it comes to serving up Post-Disco treats -, I think Ware has borrowed (as a tribute or nod) some of Murphy’s wardrobe for What’s Your Pleasure? Although there are moments where Ware puts her heart on her sleeve and goes deep, I think the best moments are when the lights come up and she surrenders to the pull of the dancefloor.
I just want to quote AllMusic’s review to see what they said about the album:
“Rhapsodic dancefloor intimacy became a new specialization for Jessie Ware with "Overtime," the first in a wave of tracks the singer released from 2018 up to the June 2020 arrival of What's Your Pleasure?, her fourth album. Other than "Adore You," a chiming glider made with Metronomy's Joseph Mount, each one in the series was either produced or co-produced by James Ford, consolidating and rerouting a partnership that started during the making of Tough Love. Unlike Ford and Ware's collaborations on that 2014 LP, the new material didn't merely simmer. Hottest of all, "Mirage (Don't Stop)" worked a ripe disco-funk groove with Ware's opening line, "Last night we danced, and I thought you were saving my life" -- sighed in a Bananarama cadence -- a sweet everything if there ever was one. The loved-up energy was kept in constant supply with the dashing "Spotlight," the Freeez-meet-Teena Marie-at-Compass-Point bump of "Ooh La La," and the sneaky Euro-disco belter "Save a Kiss." All but "Overtime" are included here. That makes the album somewhat anti-climactic, but there's no sense in complaining when the preceding singles keep giving and the new material is almost always up to the same standard. Among the fresh standouts, the bounding Morgan Geist co-production "Soul Control" and the dashing "Step Into My Life" recontextualize underground club music with as much might and finesse as anything by Róisín Murphy”.
Also in the Post-Disco mix is Dua Lipa. Her Mercury-nominated album, Future Nostalgia, is different-sounding compared to Jessie Ware, and I wonder whether the term ‘Post-Disco’ would fit the bill. I wonder whether the original Disco pioneers or those who kickstarted Post-Disco would have believed that some forty years later, artists would be carrying on their legacy. In a way, I think we call almost say artists like Kylie Minogue, Jessie Ware, Róisín Murphy and Dua Lipa are Post-Post-Disco! I love Dua Lipa’s album, as there are so many hypnotic songs that beckon movement, but they also make you think. I think the current movement has a dichotomy of emotional resonance and depth, combined with compositions and jams that cast one’s mind back to the heady Post-Disco days. I guess it is not something that has become more prominent this year, but I guess it is more noticeable considering the challenging times, and one would forgive artists if they were a bit more downbeat and downcast. I would not say that Post-Disco in 2020 exclusively has to be defined or narrowed. I think one can say that the genre/movement is more of a spirit, and there are other albums that fit the category. Pet Shop Boys’ fourteenth studio album, Hotspot, fuses Disco, Post-Disco, Synth-Pop and Electropop. It is one of their best albums of the past couple of decades, and it is guaranteed to lift the spirits. NZCA LINES’ Pure Luxury is another album that can splice more affecting lyrics with an outer shell that is more extrovert, colourful and glistening:
“Written and produced almost entirely by Lovett, yet featuring a wide range of collaborators, Pure Luxury revels in both the insular – the sound of one man processing anxiety-inducing world events - and the communal. It is a record of diverse styles, voices and textures, expanding the musical universe of Lovett’s previous albums whilst cementing his own playful voice with an inescapable sense of joy and excitement.
Tired of the now over-familiar sound of Big Analog Synths and words like glacial, austere, and wistful, he set out with one clear intention: to be Extra. Extra is the governing musical direction on Pure Luxury, accepting that we live in a world of dwindling attention spans whilst acknowledging that traditional notions of accessible musical form are fast becoming irrelevant in a world of online streaming”.
This has been a year like no other, and there was a worry that so many artists would react with music that was quite fearful and depressive. Sure, there is still some of that, but I do love how these big and bold albums have been released; allowing one to escape somewhat or, at the very least, lose some of their anxiety. I love Disco and Post-Disco, and it is encouraging to see new strands and offshoots in 2020. It makes me wonder whether we might enter a new phase where a more traditional and old-skool Disco sound emerges in the mainstream. I know there are D.J.s and artists on the fringes that are doing it, but I would love to see more of its at the forefront! Pop itself is reshaping and lightening its mood, and I do feel that, more often than not, the compositions and production of so much mainstream Pop is quite soulless and predictable – even if it is trying to be lighter and optimistic. Adding in a sprinkle of Disco brings some stardust that has more flair and panache than Pop.
I was not a huge fan of previous albums by Jessie Ware and Dua Lipa, for instance, but I do love their current work, as I think they have both hit peaks. It will be interesting to see whether Kylie Minogue steps back in time twenty years – or thirty -, and gives us some of her best work, and other great albums from this year have projected some Disco moments of bliss, including Tame Impala’s The Slow Rush and Lady Gaga’s Chromatica. I do hope, post-COVID-19, that there is this summation of increasingly upbeat Pop and the brilliant Post-Disco swathes that retains some pains in the heart and shows the scars, but there is this light shining; a desire to get the blood pumping. For those who feel modern music has lost its smile and is becoming more depressing, they need to listen to some of the best albums of this year and realise that there is a sense of reversal and encouragement. Perhaps it is the natural response to a traumatic year, or a moment where music is evolving and entering a new phase. I know we are not going to return to the flares, Studio 54s and anthemic sounds of the 1970s, but a modern-day equivalent would not be too bad! I would urge people to keep their eyes open to see what comes next, as I am sure there are going to be a few big Post-Disco/Pop albums that will get people moving! After everything that has happened – and for everything that lies ahead -, this variegated and edifying music is…
IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa
JUST what we need.