So which Xanadu would you prefer?
Do you prefer Kublai Khan’s Xanadu, nestled north of Beijing, serving as summer capital of his Mongol empire, renown for its opulence and shrouded in ancient mysteries? Or do you prefer the Xanadu of Olivia Newton-John, where ancient Greek goddesses pop out of beachside murals, rollerskating their way into love with the mortal male population?
Me? It’s a world of rollerskating muses, boyo; no contest. And, of course, the music would reflect this world’s glittering technicolour lightheartedness, charts filled with excessively sequined hymns of dazzling extravagant flashiness. Rightfully, Lady O-N-J would headline many a top-ten, while other chart mainstays like Electric Light Orchestra would shuffle up and down places with ABBA; but there would be a mighty force to be reckoned with in this Xanadu’s kittenish battlefield of delights: Music Go Music.
Oh, what shivers course up and down my spine as the opening cosmic pads of Light Of Love swirl into timidly cute piano chords accompanied by celestially pristine vocals! What mythical arrangements bloom as hyper-melodious airs converge into a wave of sorcerous cheer-infixed indulgence!
And what disservice is it to discard the song as merely a “disco track!”
Listen closely; it’s much too organic to be a midi-happy sequencefest, much too intricate to be discarded as a pastiche. The bass throbs, acoustic guitar chords, and (bluesey?) guitar licks, which permit the multi-faced synths to pace, leap, and soar with supernal dishyness, bubble with vitality and trueness. It’s an effulgent, epic anthem of generous pop wonder carried by its primeval catchy swells, if not more by its deceptively tight and layered, gushing instrumentation.
Be forewarned, however: they won’t be a Xanadu-only fixture for long.
MP3: Music Go Music - Light Of Love
myspace.com/musicgomusic
This has been another very hectic time in the Ox compound, what with copious amounts of work cutting into the precious amounts of time I wish to spend in front of my computer, writing about the wonderful, wonderful music this great big blue ball of liquid, solid, and gas has to offer us.
