With worrying dance-pop enthusiasm and a frontman who looks like an adversary out of Street Fighter,
Operation Dance clearly works best for its novelty factor. The way elastic, Latin acoustic guitar riffs peel off of the new wave melodies of "Summertime," the way the album is full of pride while deploying refrains like, "Secret Agent
Captain Jack/Don't be scared/Don't look back," the way "Together and Forever" gets to the bit where they shout out the letters to
Captain Jack's name like The Mickey Mouse Club protesting the WTO -- these are moments of fabulously unembarrassed cheese. Like Aqua sung in throaty Spanish. ~ Dean Carlson