Two years ago, Detroit’s Electric Six strutted into the Top Ten with their debut album "Fire". An eccentric, kitsch, camp and horny blend of metal, punk, new wave, disco and garage, it delivered rousing indie floorfillers with a cheeky wink.
Frontman Dick Valentine and co’s return brings us more of the same skyscraping power chords, monster riffs, cheesy synths and disco grooves laced, with lyrics of lust and politics. It’s just not so much fun this time around. For while previous offerings like the rampant "Gay Bar" and the hugely infectious "Danger! High Voltage" were grin-inducing, pissed-up party anthems, fewer tracks on "Senor Smoke" induce the same feelings of happy hour euphoria. Older and wiser perhaps, Valentine and the boys have taken a darker, more solemn stance.
Perhaps world events have taken their toll. Driving opener "Rock And Roll Evacuation" takes a shot at Dubya with “Mr President make a little money, sending people you don’t know to Iraq” while bemoaning the “evil generation”. Indeed, few US Presidents past or present make it into the Six’s good books. The slow, low-slung menace of "Jimmy Carter" recalling sleeping cowboy Ronald Reagan “dreaming of horses and nuclear war”. Indeed, the sparse, piano and vocal, angry ballad of "Taxi To Nowhere" takes us further away from the Electric Six of old, while the band’s recent single rendition of Queen’s "Radio Ga Ga" is a lacklustre affair despite the grand guitars.
That said there are some truly great moments on "Senor Smoke". The mountainous rock riffs of "Be My Dark Angel" are hugely exciting, while the breathless, angular guitar of "Future Boys" recalls prime Franz Ferdinand. The bouncy pop of "Vibrator" finds Valentine adamant that his lady friend needs no battery operated fun while he’s around, and the album’s closer, "Future Is In The Future" has a loose-fitting groove reminiscent of Talking Heads. But "Dance Epidemic" is the album’s finest moment. Harnessing brash guitar and edgy energy to a funksome bassline which sounds like Kool & The Gang’s "Get Down On it" this is an utterly irresistible disco punk knees-up.
And when it comes to utterly irresistible disco punk knees-ups, no band throws a party quite like Electric Six.
