Thursday 24 October 2013

Three Is Definitely A Trend: Radio 2 Disco

The two biggest hits of this year have been disco homages. More than that, save for the distasteful bits of the distasteful one, they've both been very tasteful, closer to 'Band Of Gold' than Sylvester. The sort of thing Radio 2 might play. Astutely, at least three musicians have noticed this.

Toploader - This Is The Night


No wait come back - the one with the hair, Gail Porter's ex and their mates have come up with a Motown pastiche worthy of Phil Collins himself, and one with a distinct disco tinge, ready-made for Ken Bruce. And 'Dancing In The Moonlight' is fine in infrequent doses.

Lisa Stansfield - Can't Dance


Radio 2 seem to have removed this from their playlist now, but they were playing it recently and it is straight up R2 disco. Sample lyrics: "slow slow, quick quick slow", "I don't care what people say tonight, gonna do my hair, put on that dress tonight", "we're gonna crucify the dancefloor". The bassline could be Chic, why not.

Dido - NYC


Dido has often dabbled with dance, and this follows a similar 'probably produced by Rollo' path to the one she's previously trod - it's electronic, but there is nonetheless Funky Guitar Work - disco - and it's by Dido - tasteful. Radio 2 'premiered' this earlier today, thus cementing an imaginary trend.

If you, or anyone else for that matter, were to be really bold, you could also make a case for there being an overlap between Radio 2 disco and the decidedly unglam stomp of James Blunt, Texas and Thea Gilmore (via all the Mumford and So Ons) that's also currently getting an airing on the station - the Matt Cardle/Mel C single is probably an even better example, if not as much as his latest one.

Basically it's high time for Frida Hyvönen to re-release one of the best singles of 2012.