If you're not old enough to remember the 1970's and the ravages of disco, count yourself lucky as you missed out on the first wave of turning music into pre-packaged plastic. One of the worst myths to be borne out of that era was that you can say what you like about disco but there's no other music you can dance to. Which was utter garbage of course, but as you weren't going to hear anything else in clubs, at dances, or on the radio that you could move to aside from disco, the chances of anybody knowing any better were slim to none.
Of course, there were plenty of alternatives if you were only willing to look for them. Funk, soul, R&B, and all the rest were still being recorded and released thoughout the 1970's. Nowadays, of course, disco is long gone, but its legacy lingers in the car stereos and dance clubs which blare out bass-laden cacophony under the guise of "dance music." Like disco, though, its lyrics (if any) are as mindless and mind numbing as the music itself. Yet for some reason people still can't seem to be bothered to seek out some of the great music out there which you can not only dance to, but that has intelligible lyrics as well.
So as a public service announcement to those people I'd like to tell you about Missy Andersen's self-titled release, Missy Andersen, that manages to pack more substance into its eight tracks than you're liable to hear from a night of what normally passes for dance music. Even better is the fact that you can just listen to this recording even if you don't feel like dancing as the music is as enjoyable to listen to as it is to move your feet to.
One of the reasons this disc is so good is that Andersen has chosen to mix it up so that no two songs sound exactly alike. From the old-style R&B of the opening cut "Ace Of Spades" to the up-tempo, horn-driven blues number "New Feet;" from the driving funk of "Pack It Up" to slow and soulful tracks like "Same Old Blues;" she and her band rock you off your feet, before slowing it all down so you can rock in your sweet baby's arms. You could put a DJ out of work with this disc — all you'd have to do is slip it in a sound system and press play. You'll get thirty plus minutes of music you can move to without ever feeling like you've had to listen to the same song twice, let alone over and over again.
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