Mr Sedgley (best known for early noughties club hit 'Happy') certainly seem to have gone for the commercial jugular with this insipid but admittedly catchy slice of retro electro-funk. Lead single 'Something Special' kicks things off and is a fair indication of what's to follow. Nay-sayers may note a similarity to funk-muppet Jamaroquai (and they wouldn't be too far off) but at least there's a proper chorus here which (though trite in sentiment) does it's job adequately. It all feels so false though, the addition of sampled, hip-hop flavoured beats are obviously an attempt at genre cross-pollination but it seems forced, in fact almost everything about this song feels contrived. That's not to say it's a badly written song, it's certainly professional sounding and well structured but there is a distinct lack of hooks. In fact much the same can be said of everything here, there just isn't anything memorable to take away from this album.
A rotating cast of vocalists vary in quality with the histrionic female singer on 'Be Good 4 Me' especially impressing. She has an agreeable lilt to her voice, the band is obviously tight (one suspects made up of session musicians) and the production is lively and inventive in parts but overall it's another song in a list of many that shoots for the stars without ever really reaching that moment of joyful transcendence that typifies the very best dance music. It's all so dated too, the break-beats and dramatic horn samples on 'What've I Got To Do' for example sound like they fell right out of 2 Unlimited's arsehole and the phased synth strings and muted guitars on 'Now I've Found You' underline a bland, repetitive disco shuffle which sounds like it should be sound-tracking a sega mega drive game.
The album's at it's best when in 'hip-hop mode' with Tor's star-making turn on 'Watcha Doin' leaving a particular impression with a flow and personality not unlike a young Jay-Z. Even here though the cheesy horn stabs and vacant soul samples feel like the work of an amateur bedroom producer, not a man with a string of top 40 singles under his belt. In all it's just a record out of time really, playing the nostalgia card will only get you so far for so long and Max Sedgley could do with changing the record before it goes past stale and starts to stink.
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