Resurgent interest in Giorgio Moroder’s pioneering disco music from the 70s landed him a guest spot on Daft Punk’s Grammy-winning Random Access Memories and a deal with RCA to produce an original solo album – his first in 30 years.
It’s unusual for a major label to give a 75-year-old the money to record original pop songs with stars like Britney Spears, Kelis, Sia, Charli XCX and Kylie Minogue, so it’s disheartening that Moroder chose to wedge his glimmering, glamorous arpeggios into pop songs that too often sound like attempts to pander to what a label exec probably thinks is a top 40 hit. Then again, a completely unnecessary Spears cover of Tom’s Diner could’ve used a higher-power intervention.
Moroder has traded the slow-burning sublimities in his early work with Donna Summer for big, instantly gratifying pop to greater effect in the past – see Top Gun and Flashdance – but here, the aggressive push into overblown choruses drowns the warmth and personality of his production work. If you really want to hear Moroder go bonkers – and co-opt a chorus – check out his Euro-trance remix of Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett’s I Can’t Give You Anything But Love. If a DJ can make that work in a set, you’re either dancing in the greatest club in the world or the worst.
Top track: La Disco
