Do You Feel What I Feel?

Gossip are back with a new album Real Power in March, their first in over a decade. Thanks to Martin over at New Amusements, whose posting of lead-in single Crazy Again a couple of weeks ago alerted me to this fact.

Like Martin, I wasn't immediately won over by Gossip mainly because I'd read so much muso journo hype and feverish pronouncements that they were the future/saviour of rock 'n' roll that I was slightly put off before hearing a note of music. 

Worse, I remember hearing Standing In The Way Of Control for the first time and thinking that it all sounded a bit pub band. And I don't mean in a Dr. Feelgood way. And yet...

Standing In The Way Of Control was a real ear worm. And then there were the remixes. Everyone goes on about the heavyweight Soulwax rework - and it is excellent - but it's the Playgroup remix by Trevor Jackson and Le Tigre's dirty disco overhaul that sealed the deal for me.

And Beth Ditto, despite being a ubiquitous presence on TV at the time which can be as much of a curse as a blessing, was an unstoppable force of loveliness. I can't find any contemporary clips (after a whole 5 mins of trawling YouTube) but here's Beth picking out some records for What's In Your Bag? in 2018 which is a fun listen/watch.

My friend John gifted me a copy of 2009's fourth album Music For Men, which I loved and played lots and lots for a couple of years. However, I didn't follow up with 2012's A Joyful Noise which to all intents and purposes was Gossip's swansong. And yet...

Gossip are back and, having listened to Crazy Again and the title track of Real Power, released as a single/video last Friday, I'm looking forward to hearing the album. Everyone needs a bit of indie-dance-punk-funk-with-feeling in their lives. Well, I do at least.