Blasts from the past look ahead
Sia
You can’t talk about the glory days of the disco in the ’70s and ’80s without dropping the name of Giorgio Moroder, the musical provocateur and producer behind such hits as “Together in Electric Dreams,” Irene Cara’s “Flashdance…What A Feelin’,” Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away,” Blondie’s “Call Me” and disco queen Donna Summer’s “Last Dance,” “Bad Girls,”
“MacArthur Park” and “No More Tears (Enough is Enough),” her glorious collaboration with Barbra Streisand.
The 75-year-old Oscar- and Grammy-winning electronic dance-music luminary refuses to be just another “throwback” recording artist, however: Last year, he won Grammy’s coveted Album of the Year award for coproducing Daft Punk’s smashing collection, “Random Access Memories.”
Moroder’s unerring ear for catchy pop is on full display in “Déjà Vu,” his buzz-worthy 17th studio album, featuring his chart-topping collaborations with Kylie Minogue (the unshakable “Right Here, Right Now”), Sia (the melodically idiosyncratic title track, “Déjà Vu”) and Britney Spears, who impresses in the cleverly arranged digitized iteration of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner.”
The album’s striking mix of dance and digital music is sonically uneven—but, when his groove-heavy “experiments” work, they’re hard to resist, as the hard-hitting “Tempted,” which features Matthew Koma (“Spectrum”) on vocals, demonstrates!
David Benoit
Talk about other blasts from the past: If you miss the unobtrusive patter of well-loved pianist David Benoit’s “Take A Look Inside My Heart” (featuring Arnold McCuller), “The Key To You” (with David Pack), “Promise Me A Carousel” (with Mona Lisa Young), “Every Step Of The Way,” “Kei’s Song” and his toe-tapping cover of Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy,” which helped launch the smooth-jazz sound in the ’80s, the easygoing tunes in his 35th album, “2 in Love” (his collaboration with songstress Jane Monheit), might just sweep you off your feet.
Monheit’s honey-coated vocals glide through the complex Latino hooks and melodic allure of “Barcelona Nights,” “Too In Love” and “Fly Away,” and she displays her dramatic theatricality and flair in “Something’s Gotta Give,” “This Dance” and “Dragonfly.”
But, the album’s pièce de résistance is the soaring and graceful “Love Will Light the Way,” where Monheit muses about “the winter storms and dark nights” that slow us down—and the silver linings that help get us back on track!
