Music Go Music - Expressions (Mercury) 29/03/10

US trio Music Go Music are pop…but not as this generation knows it.  They are bred from the new cast of popular and commercial music that forms our ever intriguing charts.  Acts like Lady Gaga have transformed the way we look at pop and Music Go Music walk in these dazzlingly original footsteps in second-hand shoes.

Their debut album, Expressions, is a collection of spiralling and sprawling sounds, guided into the disco light by lead singer Kamer Maza’s familiar voice.  Caught somewhere between The Carpenters and Blondie, the vocals are comfortably reminiscent of strong female leads of days gone by.  Maza is no pop princess, she pores sexuality into the mic, riding a floating wave of psychedlica and teetering on the edge of the experimental at all times.  Similarly, Torg the guitarist laces each track with beautiful chords woven from 70s and 80s prog rock, leaving you to positively salivate as the vocals and axe team up to seduce your ears with powerful intent.

As Music Go Music’s first two single releases show in both the Blondie-esque stomping pop Just Me or the nine minute trendy disco rock duo of Warm In The Shadows have shown, they are no one trick pony.  As great as the mix of pop disco and tantilising guitar are, tracks like Goodbye, Everybody could’ve walked straight out of the early 70s.  It’s a rock ballad, piano led and bathed in a softer light and sentiment.  Thousand Crazy Nights comes armed with spanish guitar and tamborine, pacing forward with rock’n’roll chords and piano key bashing.  Whilst the single, Light of Love, beats with Abba like vocals and style, almost a modern day Waterloo for the digital age.

Where the real issue may arise is when someone would actually want to listen to Expressions.  In small doses, it’s a real joy and fresh breath of nostalgia, but in one full whack it can drag a little in the mire of the similar.  You can see what they were trying to produce and fans of the many influences and taste may enjoy the rekindling of the genre, but where the album sits in the grand scheme of the music industry remains a mystery.  Though it’s a very enjoyable mystery at that.