Effortless, in every sense of the word, from Ed Dunn and Ethan White. Funky soulful, Latin-brushed, NYC-scened houser – as elegant as it is (running bassline, starlit chords, bongos going together with tingly keys), it’s a good job Monique Bingham is on board to give this wafer thin bar track some life, otherwise this would’ve been just slipped away into pimped and preened nothingness.
Okay, you don’t want anything too potent to obstruct the vocalist who's done turns for smooth operators like Matthias Heilbronn, Kerri Chandler and Ralf Gum. She knows how to hold a microphone’s attention, with trademark guarded sass – she takes to the stage with grace, not being one to belt her tonsils all the way across it but holding her own steely resoluton - that’s open to yearning and making her a creature holding a degree of fascination. Won't Stop will put you instantly at ease, putting the images of rooftop terraces and sunkissed beaches linked to sparkling wave ripples, sunsets and moon-as-glitterball moments right in front of your eyes and ears.
Maybe the lack of summer has formulated something of a warm weather Scrooge, but Won't Stop represents a personal bugbear. As well as all the idyllic scenes that it sounds tailor made for scoring – it’s warm, it knows where your goose-bumps are, etc etc - it’s also just the sort of stuff that hums away to itself in the background of the latest bit of bar-chic off the high street, while you try and make yourself heard with an overpriced European lager poured into a fancy glass in hand. Derivative might be too harsh a description, but in the cold light of the wet English summertime, this is something where the surroundings have to be absolutely spot-on for it to thrive.
Okay, you can’t really blame dunnEasy for the inclement UK climate that’ll render Won’t Stop as useful as an inflatable dartboard. And then Padapella, removing the drums to allow the sytnsh to swirl and crystallise the atmoshphere, marks the track as a fine decongestant. But surely something must be awry when it requires a setting honing in on its is flimsiness that anywhere else will struggle to pass through a set without so much as causing a ripple amongst the massed beautiful people.
Rant over.