Dirty Vegas - Dirty Vegas

If you are to believe the tabloid reports, Dirty Vegas are the biggest UK success story in the States since the Spice Girls. They seem to have forgotten that the last act to make it over in the States before returning triumphant to their native country was Dido and the less said about her the better. For those living in a bubble for the past few weeks the story starts with "Days Go By", which was used in a commercial for Mitsubishi, and before you can say "Hey, I'm the Great Soprendo" Dirty Vegas wiped out all the cynicism displayed recently over the UK Music Scene.

When the opening bars to "I Should Know" kick in and the vocals rise like David Gray, all folky vocal inflections, before the beats pound four to the flour and you realize you're dads going through a mid-life crises and traced Moby's career back to the days of glow sticks and techno. Each tracks is crammed to the brim with ambient chilled out synths, deep house bass lines and electro breaks yet still it seems restrained by this conservative MOR production which makes X-Press 2's "Lazy" look revolutionary. Every so often there will be the smallest glimmer of hope such as getting lost in the groove of "Lost Not Found", the mechanical breaks on "Throwing Shapes" or the pounding headf**k that is "7AM". Even the Crowded House-isms of the albums closer "Simple Things Part 2" are acceptable when placed next to the poor choice of single "Ghosts".

Dirty Vegas bring a whole list of influences to the table and manage to drain every single ounce of energy and innovation out of them. You can't help but wish that they simply spent the rest of their career touring Mitsubishi Car Lots across the States, but sadly you get the feeling that these guys are going to take over the world Faithless style reaching out to anyone who'll have them.

Alex McCann

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