Dominant Legs - Invitation (Vinyl LP, CD)

The press release says “Arthur Russell playing the Aztec Camera back catalogue”. From the sound of the first two tracks I can shorten that to a more succinct quote - “Haircut 100”. They have the strummy Nile Rogers guitars and cheesy melodies that ensured that Nick Hayward’s lot were “the Orange Juice you could take home to meet your mum” (though don’t let ‘em near your wife!).

Just when you have it figured out, way out of leftfield something even more limp. ‘Already Know That Its Nice’ recalls Deacon Blue as produced by Stock, Aitken and Waterman. Actually lets re-wind - ‘Already Know that It’s Nice’ - what kind of title is that? Good to see that musicians still have a bit of that punk spirit.

‘Darling Girls’ though is pretty much the nadir of recorded music - remember when Brother Beyond signed up with Stock, Aitken and Waterman? Imagine a song that’s so limp and lifeless that it couldn’t even get onto the B side of the follow-up flop to ‘The Harder I Try’. In a way it’s impressive  - it’s like a time capsule from the worst bits of 1988 - it must have taken them ages to put an album together that’s this bad. I, for one, am quite impressed.