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Having a hit dance record is relatively easy
compared to sustaining that success over a full album.
Many a Europop outfit in the 1990s enjoyed a hugely
successful singles career but ran into a brick wall
when confronted with the daunting task of an album,
reduced to the trick of including multiple mixes of
the hits, or blatantly copying the formula of the
chart smashes.
In that respect Uniting Nations have made a
1990s dance album. And yet it's extraordinary the
album has come about at all, given that Daz
Sampson lives in Manchester, and Paul
Keenan, his partner in crime, is a policeman in
Scotland. The two fileshare over MSN, so in that
respect Out Of Touch was a wholly appropriate first
hit for their online studio.
That track retains the perky dancefloor appeal that
saw it break through from the clubs to the radio, its
update on the Hall & Oates original an
extremely catchy and upbeat version. To their credit
the duo have gone easy on the cover versions for One
World, but unfortunately it shows in second single You
And Me, a Eurobeat track strongly reminiscent of
Together's So Much Love To Give - presumably a
coincidence. Worst of all though is the second cover
version, of Quincy Jones' Ai No Corrida.
Vocalist Laura More has previous with
towel-wielding aerobics in Eric Prydz's Call On
Me video, and she has a sweet tone, but this version
is a stinker, full of lazy filtering effects.
And this is where the album really falls short,
relying on musical clich� for much of its duration.
Filter effects aren't the only crime either, as there
is a heavy reliance on the technique of building up
the drums then dropping them for a beat, as used by
Roger Sanchez in Another Chance. Once is fine
but five or more times smacks of complacency. It's not
all bad news on the vocal front though. Jinian
Wilde is a perfectly good vocalist, even if a few
shortcomings come over on the acappella samples
offered as a bonus at the end. Donovan
Blackwood has a good voice, overtones of
Seal coming over on his contribution to She's
Special.
Elsewhere Tonight (In The City) is suitably
nocturnal, and has some nice Balearic touches. Music
In Me whacks up the guitars but the same formula
remains - good beats but very predictable. Destiny
attempts to incorporate a trance riff into its core,
unsuccessfully, while Make Love retreads the same
chord patterns as Out Of Touch. The instrumental Blues
And Twos is actually the pick of the album tracks, an
easy going loop from the outset.
However the problem of formula remains - there's
nothing on here to mark out the boys as long haul
chart botherers, and nothing that hasn't been done to
death before. If you're a huge fan of the singles you
probably won't be disappointed, but otherwise I'm
afraid it's mostly a case of out of touch, out of
time.
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