That’s My Jam is a weekly feature where one person from the Selective Hearing staff goes to wax poetic about music that is pivotal to their musical tastes. Whether that would be an album, a song, or anything in-between. We all had to start somewhere.
Release Date: December 1, 2001
Track Listing
- Murder On The Dancefloor
- Never Let Me Down
- Murder On The Dancefloor (Parky & Birchy Remix)
Review
Sophie Ellis-Bextor is an English singer, songwriter, model and DJ. She was the former frontwoman of the indie rock band Theaudience and after the group disbanded, she embarked on a solo career. In 2001 she released her debut album, Read My Lips featuring a cover of Cher’s Take Me Home and her biggest-selling single, Murder On The Dancefloor.
The song peaked at number two on the UK Singles chart and stuck around for 23 weeks. This is for good reason, as the track combines elements of nu-disco and pop in a catchy dance floor number.
http://youtu.be/1eDlZbOkiZA
This song came out when I was searching for a new musical identity as a DJ. At the time I was listening to a lot of BBC Radio 1 and Galaxy FM, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor was one of the hottest artists getting heavy spins after her collaboration with Spiller. I loved (and still do love) Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love), and to me, this was pretty damn close to that awesome level.
Songs like Murder On The Dancefloor solidified the idea that maybe I should give dance music a go, as I was tired of the repetitive and stale nature of Urban music during this period. While the original may be a little too pop for what I mix these days, the remixes on the various maxi singles are certainly enough to make it into my current sets. If you can find those consider yourself lucky, they’re a gold mine of goodness.
But it’s still perfectly fine as something to throw on the iPod on the commute to wherever you roam or at the gym. The song has aged well, which says a lot about the quality of the product itself, as dance music does not age gracefully and sounds extremely dated for the most part when you play it out of its era.
As it is said by some folks out there, “TUNE!!”