I'm sure I'm revealing my age here but whatever: When I was growing up, Christopher Cross was the mainstream and alternative bands were in no way wanting to be making music like he was making. Somehow, that changed and now artists outside the mainstream, like Foxygen and John Moods here, are crafting tunes that owe their sound to the very worst material of the Eighties. If the current artists are doing this ironically, I don't see the point. If they are doing it with a straight face, I really don't see the point of it.
That said, So Sweet, the new EP from John Moods on Arbutus Records, is a note-perfect recreation of so much of what I hated in my formative years. Lacking the catchiness of stuff like Cross or Hall & Oates (an act I still love, actually), Moods' music is built instead around a revival of the textures of the earlier era. "Talk to Me" is fairly pleasant, but it's not even as memorable as the weakest Howard Jones singles, in my opinion, and "Without You" is at least peppier. None of this EP is something that I'm the audience for, despite having grown up hearing all the acts that Moods is aping, but that's fine. I can write about how well he does whatever it is he's set out ot do. John at least imbues this with the right surface sheen, even if the melodies are simply not there, or forced onto the keyboard figures. Frankly, I'd have enjoyed this more if the selections were longer instrumentals, as the vocals here just sink the whole thing for me. The world doesn't need this, but I'll begrudingly admit that there might be someone out there into this sort of washed-out AOR, synth-pop. But, hey, why not just go buy some records from the Reagan years instead of this?
So Sweet is out on Friday via Arbutus Records.
[Photo: Arbutus Records]