Tortured Soul: Hot for Your Love Tonight
Details
Genre: Disco, Electronica, Nu-disco, r&bPros:
Plenty of solid jams, hearty nu-disco ditties. Tortured Soul expands into synth universe quite nicely with "Girl (Take a Break Backstage" and "I Don't Need Your Love Tonight"Cons:
Lyricism, not always TS's strongest suit, still suspended in repetitive loopsNu-disco/house jam band pumps out more of the same, embraces new chapter of ’80’s synthpop
Nu-disco/house jam band pumps out more of the same, embraces new chapter of ’80’s synthpop
After dropping an explosive mix CD and new singles, nu-disco 3-piece band Tortured Soul had to deal with the unfortunate news of losing keyboard wiz Ethan White, who died in March of this year. He was an important part in helping carve out the band’s buoyant acid jazz meddling, much of it coming from White’s undergrad experience as a piano major and being surrounded by jazz piano geniuses in New York like Donald Friedman. With his pedigree of powerful acid jazz execution, he helped forge a new style of jazz-disco fusion that made Tortured Soul totally unique in the genre of house. Still, the Brooklyn-based group marches onward to the next level of dancefloor nirvana with their third full-length album, Hot for Your Love Tonight. Much of it bears White’s actual fingerprints, including previously released singles “Dirty” and “Can’t Keep Rhythm from a Dancer.” But much of the stronger stuff is embedded in the newer material, serving as a continuation of what most expect from them. Funk-driven, Chic-inspired grooves drive “I’ll Be There for You” and the sexy nightlife glares of the title track. Fixated with nostalgia, “You Will Be Mine” incorporates Sister Sledge’s “He’s the Greatest Dancer” riffs. When lead vocalist John-Christian Urich explodes with the “Dancin’”phrase, it sounds like he’s taking a cue from Stephanie Mills’ “Put Your Body In It.”
The album’s celebration of disco’s best ideas, along with their slick Justin Timberlake-esque hip-hop swagger, remains the primary focal point, but they do take a sonic leap of edgy creativity into rhythmic synthpop on the glowing “Girl (Take a Break Backstage)” and the album frontrunner “Last Time We Made Love.” And it continues as the album parades forward. On “I Don’t Need Your Love Tonight,” Urich and company play with 8-bit video game bleeps, as if they are dropping Dig Dug into Laid Back’s “White Horse.” Those offerings sound as if Tortured Soul is now inspired by the proliferation of New Wave product on the music scene now.
With no ballads in sight, Hot for Your Love Tonight is essentially a non-stop party record. It’s also a fitting farewell to White. The only album drawback, although it is a selfish qualm by the critic, is that it chooses the studio take of “Dirty” over the “live” version and the quasi-Prince funk of the Sir Piers Fools mix.
