Dance Pattern

Song: Dance Pattern
Artist: Electric Six
Album: I Shall Exterminate Everything Around That Restricts Me From Being the Master





Another month, another new Electric Six album. Well… not exactly, but the bands new record, scheduled for release next week, comes pretty hot on the heels of last years “Switzerland.” The new album, “I Shall Exterminate Everything Around That Restricts Me From Being the Master” does not differ from the Electric Six formula; catchy disco-rock, cheeky lyrics, and songs either about dancing or dancing and looking sexy. I am a huge fan of this band, but after a few listens to the record, I wonder if they are running out of steam a bit.

The bands output, in my opinion, has slowly dipped in quality. Their debut “Fire” had the one-two punch of hit singles “Danger! (High Voltage)” and “Gay Bar,” not to mention killer album tracks like “I Invented the Night” and “I’m the Bomb.” “Señor Smoke,” the follow up had a lot of great moments, and some now E6 classics, and while not as consistently stellar as “Fire,” the release of third record “Switzerland” made “Smoke” seem better in retrospect. Despite this, if you like the bands sound you will find something worthy in each album, 100%. I am still listening to the new record though, as I sort of felt the same way about “Switzerland” when it came out and ended up liking it quite a bit.

Ironically, in a press statement for the last album they made it a point that there would be no songs on the record that had the word “dance” in the title. I had never thought about it, but on their two first records there were no less than five songs including some variation on the word… “Dance Commander,” “Improper Dancing,” “Nuclear War (On the Dance Floor),” “Dance Epidemic,” and “Dance-A-Thon 2005.” While they took a break for one record, on “I Shall Exterminate” they get three songs in and then drop “Dance Pattern,” another fun slice of ridiculousness that has thus far been the stand out to me. Stereogum described it as “Scissor Sisters Blues Explosion,” which sounds about right to me.

I often criticize acts for not doing anything new on an album and sticking with the formula as it usually bores me. E6 have done exactly that and it doesn’t bother me… their “thing” is unique and honestly, just not deep enough to want (or expect) much more. Long live Electric Six, but maybe they should take two years to record the next record and aim for something as good as “Fire.”

Enjoy.

Dance Commander


This is funny…