Posted on: April 22, 2009 Posted by: anfnewsacct Comments: 0

“Handel On Your Face” seems to try to draw some influence from the “Switched On Bach” of Walter/Wendy Carlos, but really does not connect with listeners as well as it should. Perhaps it is the extended opening (modified off of classical forms) that does it, but the Body Rockers really get back into the game with the commercially sampled “I Like The Way”. “I Like The Way” has the same solid instrumentation that made Daft Punk such a hot commodity a few years back, and the ever-shifting synth lines present during the track really link up well with the guitar work.

Surprisingly, the average track length of songs on this album is geared towards rock audiences; there are no tracks present here that will bore listeners with their overly-long runtimes. This brand of post-dance, post-rock music is a crucial bridge between the retro-rock that dominated indie music the last few years as well as the dance-punk that immediately preceded that, creating a completely new brand of music in the process. While each of the tracks has a certain polish (meaning that it was produced intelligently), the disc’s first peak has to come with the tremendous amount of vocal harmony present during “You Got Me Singing”. “Round and Round” really seems to draw its primary inspiration from Robert Palmer and Dire Straits, adding a certain touch of the eighties without incurring a tremendous amount of smirks from their audience.

The guitar licks, themselves looking at ZZ Top really add a certain air of authenticity to this dance hall-ready track. “Dirty” may just have the most interesting mishmash of influences; the guitars take on a Lenny Kravitz-like sound even as the vocals seem modified by the hair rock genre. “For One Night Only” would be perfect in so many other ways than it is on the disc; the synthesizer hook would be made even better if it was transferred beneath a rap, while the spoken vocals work much like a skit in the sense they are completely extraneous. Body Rockers will succeed in the fact that everything present on this self-titled disc really sounds as if individuals have heard the tracks before. On more than one occasion, the arrangements call forth prior tracks; far from being trite and unoriginal, perhaps the strongest reason for individuals to buy this disc comes in this tendency, as Body Rockers subserviate these older influences into something that is completely new.

Top Tracks: New York City Girl, Dirty

Rating: 5.7/10

Body Rockers – S/T / 2005 Universal / 11 Tracks / http://www.universalrecords.com / Reviewed 17 September 2005

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