Music Go Music took a long time to release their third album,
Impressions. It arrived nearly five years after
Expressions, which raises the question of what they were doing all that time. From the sound of it, they were tinkering with, and ultimately perfecting, a very particular musical equation: what would you get if you took the icy, remote pop of disco-era
ABBA and added just a touch of the warm, enveloping sound of peak period
Fleetwood Mac? You'd get some pretty genius pop if the results were cooked just right, and
Music Go Music come about as close as anyone could ever expect. The frigid temps of
ABBA's near-mathematical pop are balanced by warm California vocal harmonies, the nearly robotic rhythms are offset by gently strummed guitars and fiery solos, and the whole thing sounds like the result of some kind of scientific experiment. Some of the songs tilt a little bit more to the
ABBA side, like the shimmering "Inferno" and the frozen teardrop-coated "Never Get Over You," while some have a bit more
Fleetwood in their DNA thanks to the guitars, vocals, and little bits of sonic trickery that creep in from time to time. "Shine Down Forever" could even be a missing disco track from Tusk if you squint enough. The best example of the magical alchemy that
MGM accomplish is on the enchanting "Nite After Nite," which really does sound exactly like the result of a joint
Mac-
ABBA recording session. All this mix and match would just be cute and nothing more if it weren't for the fact that the songs are really, really good and that some of them go their own way. "People All Over the World" has a funky, rubbery underpinning and the kind of chorus that makes you want to get up and bop around; "Love Is All I Can Hear" starts off the album with a sultry bit of slow-motion disco-pop showing right away that Gala Bell is a truly talented vocalist with a warm and powerful tone. Added up,
Impressions is a wonderfully fun and deep listen that stuns right away with its channeling of
ABBA, but also sticks around thanks to the craft and invention that went into its creation. [
Impressions was also released on LP.] ~ Tim Sendra