Various Acts - 'Hotel Pelirocco' (Distinct'ive)
4/5
By: Toby L
Any album able to merge Primal Scream's fearsome 'Autobahn 66' into Kenny Rogers deserves nothing less than admirable respect... Or wariness.
But, as it is, the soundtrack to Hotel Pelirocco - Brighton, UK's themed, room-by-room getaway - is a disorientating, giddy, but wholeheartedly enjoyable, fayre: not one track of the entire twenty-song catalogue is designed to do anything more than raise a perky smile or drop of the trousers.
So, no matter schizophrenic, frenetic schlock-pop (Dexy's 'There There My Dear'); smoothster, sleaze-ridden tunesmithery (Little Barrie's 'Buy My Style', Climax Blues Band's 'Couldn't Get It Right'); timeless odes (Dusty Springfield's 'Spooky', The Damned's 'Smash It Up', The Righteous Flames' 'Zion'); or el trendo slavings (Add N To X's 'Plug Me In'), it's all a leg-shaking experience - albeit, one made all the more pleasurable with a bottle of champagne and a full room in sight.
Plus, it's got grounding, darling - not merely the fluffy-bunny newbies of the past few years; there's true depth on display. Notably, it's a smack-in-the-face hearing once again the sunny indie-pop of The Small Faces' 'Grow Your Own' or disco-rama divas Sister Sledge with their doting-pop masterpiece, 'Love Don't Go Through No Changes On Me'. Come 'Les Fleurs' by Minnie Ripperton, and we're officially gay by the end of the disc's spin.
A shameless advert it may prove for Sussex's premier yuppie-asylum, but when the tunes are this flowin' and groovin', there's little contempt to be held over rigorous and vigorous boogying so fierce. Let's just pray that room-service have a decent hangover-cure.
Artists in this article: Various Acts
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