Leisure Cruise – “The Getaway”

Ahh, the deathless sound of sexy cool female vocals atop a driving electronic beat. It draws a line through forty years of pop music, starting from its Eurodisco origins in Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love” (from which came the description “Moroderesque”); on into new wave exemplars the Human League and Yazoo; Italo disco and its U.S. variants (“Self Control,” anyone?); the crucial lifeline thrown during the grunge years by Swedes such as Roxette and Ace of Base; electronica’s disco avatars Goldfrapp and Moloko; a Y2K resurgence via electroclash and indie groups like Le Tigre; and the millennial stylings heard most recently on the Drive soundtrack.

Leisure Cruise is one of the more worthwhile new groups working with this sound. Fronted by the captivating Leah Siegel, this duo put out a self-titled debut album last year that presses all the right buttons. You got your touches of processed 80s guitar (Siegel’s collaborator Dave Hodge cuts a rather Eurythmic figure), frank declarations like “The body wants what the body wants,” even the random vocal sung in breathy French. Now they’re on tour and have shared a new video for “The Getaway” to let fence-sitters know how hard it is to remain unmoved by their music. Leisure Cruise has pushed off the port of Brooklyn already, but you can catch a final east coast date this week before they sail down the west coast.

Leisure Cruise is available now on Last Gang Records.

LEISURE CRUISE ON TOUR:
02.27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Milk Boy
02.28 – Whistler, BC @ The GLC
03.01 – Vancouver, BC @ Media Club
03.02 – Spokane, WA @ The Bartlett
03.03 – Seattle, WA @ The Neptune
03.04 – Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
03.05 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
03.06 – Los Angeles, CA @ Fonda Theater
03.07 – San Diego, CA @ Bar Pink