“Is this the most 80s record ever?” asked Junior’s mum. That brought me down to earth. I thought it was a pioneering, barnstorming, proto-electrohouse, hip-hop-referencing, technofunk floorburner. Turns out it’s as tinny as Kajagoogoo.
And that’s electro’s big problem. As groundbreaking and exciting as Arthur Baker productions and the like might have sounded back in ‘82/‘83, these days they only seem acceptable with LL Cool J droning and Jennifer Lopez caterwauling over the top. Of course, that’s not true. That record’s a travesty, but we do expect everything beefed up now. Only “zum zum zum zum zum”s seem to bestride the decades.
Contrarily, Junior danced like a maniac.