The Music Lovers – The Words We Say Before We Sleep

The Music Lovers are swish. Swish because they’re talented.

The Music Lovers are swish. Swish because they’re talented.

The Music Lovers – The Words We Say Before We Sleep


 


 


Swish. It’s not a word that seems to come up in conversation that often, but if I was asked to describe The Music Lovers to you in one word, I think that would work rather well. How swish? Well, think of someone like a male ballroom dancer. I’m not just talking about the sequins either, although I think that has a big part to play in it. I mean how brave a bloke do you have to be to stand up in public wearing sequins? There’s a reason that 99.9% of the world’s male population don’t wear sequins and it has absolutely nothing to do with sexuality. It’s because we would look bloody ridiculous. Let’s face it, most of us can make wearing jeans and a t-shirt look like a bad idea, so struggling into an all in one sequined suit would make us look about as attractive as a bear in a wetsuit.


 


And yet ballroom dancers can pull it off. Not only that but they can wear sequins whilst jiving, thrusting and shaking their backsides around a dance floor, often treating the girl by their side like a rag doll. Most of us blokes would struggle to carry our partners across the threshold never mind swing them around by their ankles. What’s more is that they make it look effortless.


 


Ballroom dancing is an incredibly difficult thing to do, but when it’s done well it looks simple and easy. Strength, stamina, fitness, they need it all. A ballroom dancer will learn a routine until it’s completely natural to them. Every step, every turn, every twist, every throw repeated again and again and again until it’s almost instinctual. It takes talent, it takes guts and it takes a lot of determination to be a ballroom dancer. Years of training, years of practice and years of hard work and what do they end up with? A few thousand sequins and a smug grin.


 


You know when a ball room dancer is going to be good because they have that look about them. That look that says. “Laugh at me all you like you fat fuck, I’ll be sleeping with your wife by the end of the night.” That’s right; a ball room dancer is swish alright. Talented, determined and strong willed; pretentious, classy and smug as hell. Swish.


 


The Music Lovers are swish. Swish because they’re talented. Extremely talented. The musicianship on The Words We Say Before We Sleep is top notch. It all sounds so crisp, clear and professional. And, it has to be said, because they are a tad pretentious. Song titles like I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m going to those who love me and lyrics like, “Climbing into bed with the alcamedic girl. Vive la mer,” are prime examples. Swish because they are classy – This World Versus The Next World – and swish because the singer sounds as smug as hell.


 


The Words We Say Before We Sleep is an exceptional piece of work. Expertly crafted from start to finish, it feels incredibly relaxed, extremely confident and completely effortless. However, despite the fact that this album is a fine, fine piece of work I get the distinct feeling that there’s something better to come from them.


 


These guys are well worth tracking down. Fans of Cousteau, (That’ll be the Irish ones, not the Belgian) especially. You can find out more about The Music Lovers by checking out http://www.themusiclovers.net/ or www.myspace.com/themusiclovers. Alternatively, check your local jazz bar for a curly mop of hair and a few thousand sequins.


 


Words: Damian Leslie