|
||
|
CD ReviewThe Last Dance - "Staring At The Sky"by Marcus Pan
I quite like Do You Believe In Angels. It's a damn good song and lends itself to a number of possibilities as has been portrayed here. Dance to it, make love to it or do whatever you like - it's an excellent piece. While the other tracks provided on Staring At The Sky are somewhat generic for the goth-pop 80's style as popularized by The Cure, Sisters Of Mercy, etc., they are good renditions of this style of music-making. But Angels is good enough in its own right to make me look forward to hearing what The Last Dance has in store for us in their long-awaited release, Perfect. Contact Information: |
|
Formed in the early 90s, The Last Dance is
the creative force of original members Rick Joynce (guitars) and Jeff Diehm
(vocals). Joining them later is bassist Peter Gorritz, drummer Ivan D. and
Robert Schott on keyboards. Having a standard 80's goth-pop influenced sound,
they are on the verge of releasing their latest and, I'm assuming, their
greatest album Perfect this coming winter. Their first full-length
release in three years, Perfect is a long-awaited sequel to their
previous full-length CD, Fairytales. Their latest available release from
1998, EP Staring At The Sky, has four remixes of one of their more
popular songs - Do You Believe In Angels. One of the better goth-rock
style songs I've heard in some time, might I add.
Staring At The Sky has its good
moments. The highlight of this is the Angels single I've already
mentioned. Of the versions here, the two that stand out are the Euro-Dance
Mix which kicks off this EP and the Falling Star Mix. I can easily
see myself enjoying any dance floor to the first version. It has a deep bass
rhythm to it and the vocals of Jeff Diehm are excellent - as is notable
throughout the rest of The Last Dance's work. There's the perfect amount of
sliding-synth style within the Euro-Dance Mix and a good amount of
beat-only breakdowns to keep any floor moving. The latter version, the
Falling Star remix on track four, is nothing short of wonderful. It's a
more ballad-based arrangement this time with a soothing atmosphere about it.
The guitars, complements of Rick Joynce, and Robert's keyboards work great
together. It moves slowly with an overpowering yet sublime arrangement. The
work of these two gentlemen is also apparent in the CDs second track, a song
called Flesh. They provide an excellent introduction to the song - but
thereafter it does become a rather generic SOM-style dark-rock track. The same
standard nature is within Mystery, the third track on Staring At The
Sky as well.
Other versions of Do You Believe In
Angels included on this EP are the Violet's Song-Piano and
Screaming Kitty Mix. While the latter, which is used to close the album,
is a decent rendition I must say that there is no need to repeat the song's
chorus so many times at the end. Changing pitch and adding the occasional
"yeah" only gives you leeway up to, say, four repetitions before becoming
annoying. The piano version is sweet and personal-sounding - but with the
others included here I don't think it was necessary. The other versions are
good enough without this one added, but it is very different from the others at
least. The Screaming Kitty Mix is very similar to the opening
Euro-Dance Mix, so it is possible I just kind of got jaded by this one
particular song by the time the fourth version of it was played out in
near-succession.
|
|
|