Bust A Move Dance Summit 2001 is third album in the series - with the second album being relatively hard to get hold of and the first being a real gem - this album has a tough challenge ahead of itself.
"Opening" is just a small song to stretch the albums legs before the real songs kick into full dance anthem fun. "Stage: 79 Street" actually starts off with a more underground beat with a dirty sounding raggae/jungle vocal man rapping throughout. Inoffensive and slightly catchy it paves the way for the more Bust A Move styled song "Stage: Jungle Rock" which is a dance song with a cabaret feel to it. The brass instruments and singing go hand in hand to be quirky, catchy and very fun to dance to. As with all the songs, they are sung mainly in Japanese so although you cant sing along easily you'll be humming the chorus in no time.
"Stage: Kita 2001 Team" is more futuristic dance song with various little synth arrangements pitter pattering throughout the song but sadly the slightly off key singing is what I remember first of the song and the poor sound balancing. "Stage: Muscle Stadium" is an uptempo rockier number using organs and guitars to dampen the rather over the top and excited male singer who cant quiet hold the notes for longer than a second withover growling or wavering. Its doesnt sound as bad as I've explained it but its just not very polished.
"Stage: Queen's High School" is a return to old skool dance of the early 1990's and is a very plesent and catchy song with someone who can sing (always welcome that). It reminds me of something that would open a early night gameshow! "Stage: Hanazono" has an overly busy verse but has the ultimate gay pride ovation chorus! You can see Village People dripping off it - and its no bad thing as its as catchy as hell and you cant help but dance about like a luny! Maybe that says more about me than the music...but its definately one of the highlights of the CD.
"Stage: Iga-Base" is good fast paced fun with japanese yodeling in it and some cutesy girls as backing vocals - how can that go wrong! Its for pure comedy value this song gets high marks from me as it never fails to bring me a smile. "Stage: Disco 21" is a great 70's treat full of snazzy guitars, litte guitar numbers and hand claps. Its another sexy and sassy song that really shines.
"Ending" in complete contrast is a rock song which despite a bit of poor production (which dogs the album in places unless my copies a bad one) is a strong number with some seriously funky sections before an anthemic finish.
Bust A Move Dance Summit 2001 gets better upon each listen. There's only 10 songs and of them 6 or 7 are of the same stand of Bust A Move's high dance music standard. But when it hits the right notes it does so with such panache it cant be touched. Be warned - label under funky and proud!
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