Bad dancers who think they’re good dancers must all face the music when reality cuts in. I’ve always fancied myself a good dancer. Then Zero Zero’s AM Gold arrived in my mailbox.
Seconds into track one, “True Zero,” I was dancing around my living room looking idiotic with furrowed brow, glance trained on the horizon, squinting like I was struggling to appreciate a piece of art. I shuffled around in a dance straight out of a Katrina and The Waves video.
I immediately restarted the CD, hoping my body would take me somewhere else on the second go-round, but it did not. Slightly different ’80s dance, as painfully executed. The third try, I was busting a full-on, Courtney Cox “Dancing in the Dark,” kick-step thing.
The sobering moment was upon me. I was a bad dancer… or was I?
Perhaps Zero Zero put out an album to which the only appropriate physical expression of enjoyment is dancing like Molly Ringwald. That must be it.
Zero Zero is Ari Katz and Dave Idea formerly of New Jersey power sobbers Lifetime, along with Miss TK on keyboards. Surely theA Lifetime legacy will move units for Zero Zero, but those expecting power chords and violently yanked heartstrings are looking in the wrong place.
AM Gold’s repetition and friendly beats matched with its preset keyboard and drum machine sounds invoke everything from The Human League and Radio Birdman to Stereolab and Pizzicato 5. While the sounds are familiar, they aren’t played out. This is not to say AM Gold comes off altogether cohesive. The stamp of the keyboard ties the songs together, but the album is all over the map. Lucky for the listener, this unresolvedness is extremely charming.
Zero Zero are post-hardcore people exploring musical styles they like, but have never tried to play, and I applaud them for striking out in a new direction. AM Gold is a lot of fun to listen to with great songs that get stuck in your head. But, as interesting as this album is, the promise it makes is for its players when they’re more comfortable in their new skins.