Oh, Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
After over six months (and counting!), the British disco queen’s highly anticipated fourth studio album, Make A Scene, continues to lie in limbo, facing a seemingly endless series of push-backs and delays.
As the record remains but a twinkling star in the far-off distance, it was only natural then that its contents would slowly begin to trickle out. And so they have, with the album’s latest leaks: “Starlight” and “Revolution.”
“Starlight,” produced by British pop mastermind Richard X and co-penned by Xenomania scribe Hannah Robinson, is a quintessential Sophie Ellis-Bextor production: A heaping slice of Italo-disco revivalism, coated in warm waves of synthesizers and lazily cooed vocals. It’s an incredibly gorgeous number, worthy of playing on repeat for hours on end.
For fans of the latest efforts by Annie and Sally Shapiro, “Starlight” will surely tick all the right boxes. (I’m utterly obsessed!)
“Revolution,” on the other hand, is a much more frantic production which sees Ellis-Bextor letting her hair down and getting rowdy and rebellious, along with a shout out to her legendary 2001 smash “Murder On The Dancefloor.” The track is packed with punchy beats and electro-blippy noises similar to Sky Ferreira‘s “99 Tears” (which shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise, given that both songs were done by the same producer: Greg Kurstin.)
While “Starlight” is surely the better of the two, both tracks are indicative of yet another incredible pop album from Lady Bex…that is, if it ever sees the light of day.
After performing her latest single, “Not Giving Up On Love,” on The Alan Titchmarsh Show last week, Bextor announced that her new album (which she describes as “quite doncey and up-beat”) is due to be released in May 2011. We’ll see about that.
I’m not giving up on love, Sophie…or Make A Scene for that matter!