Ah yes, we've all been there - it's all thumbs
aloft, good clean groping fun until someone launches a sexual assault charge
forty years later and you wind up in jail. I think if I were one of the current
crop of seventies television personalities in the dock then I'd be putting this
album cover up as Exhibit #1 for my defence; I put it to you that middle aged
men with their arms around inappropriately younger Gwyneth Paltrow look-alikes
was how it was 'back then'.
The judge and jury probably wouldn't buy it, but it's no less true because of it - there was a culture of casual sexism where women were frequently treated as items of distraction and your actions toward them seemed to require no thoughts of consequence, much the same way footage of cute cats are viewed on YouTube these days. But enough of the sociology lesson.
'Big Party Hits' presumably refers to the promise that the music therein will be a big hit at a party rather than any of the songs being big hits in their own right which, 'Rock Around The Clock' and 'Lily The Pink' aside, would be fair enough - the 'tracklist' on this is a mind boggling mix that zig zags eras and genres with all the care of a drunk driver weaving across motorway lanes. Some of them are rendered as instrumentals, others have singalong vocals while others again have vocals that phonetically pick out the main melody as a kind of separate instrument. The common thread that holds it all together is a constant 4/4 beat that keeps everything grounded like an urtext of a Black Lace megamix, and the between track 'applause' and 'chatter' that's designed to give the impression this was recorded live down your local (though it's actually just a bad dub job).
Aspirations as a proper 'party in a can' record then; Chas and Dave used to do this stuff and do it well, but that was partly because they had songs that could stand up in their own right but - and more importantly - they also brought a huge amount of personality and goodwill to everything they did. We all knew who Chas and Dave were and you could imagine them belting their stuff out in the pub or at your party even when they weren't. And that's the problem with 'Big Party Hits' - there's no 'personality' here. None whatsoever. The vocals and the playing are competent, but that bare minimum is all you get; the rest is up to you the listener, which is probably why I found listening its forced jollity such a joyless exercise.
And ok, like watching 'The Exorcist' on a mobile phone on an August beach, maybe my hearing it solo through clenched teeth and suffering from a bout of gastroenteritis meant I wasn't hearing it in the spirit or context it was intended. But then whilst there's something undeniably sad about drinking alone and putting this on and doing a one man conga to try and cheer yourself up, it's no less sad to imagine a party that needs a record like this to jump start it either. If you have to 'buy in' the party atmosphere from elsewhere then something's gone badly wrong before you start, and if you've enough about you to be able to put on a good bash then you're not going to need nonsense like this are you? Put her down mate or you're going to regret it.
The judge and jury probably wouldn't buy it, but it's no less true because of it - there was a culture of casual sexism where women were frequently treated as items of distraction and your actions toward them seemed to require no thoughts of consequence, much the same way footage of cute cats are viewed on YouTube these days. But enough of the sociology lesson.
'Big Party Hits' presumably refers to the promise that the music therein will be a big hit at a party rather than any of the songs being big hits in their own right which, 'Rock Around The Clock' and 'Lily The Pink' aside, would be fair enough - the 'tracklist' on this is a mind boggling mix that zig zags eras and genres with all the care of a drunk driver weaving across motorway lanes. Some of them are rendered as instrumentals, others have singalong vocals while others again have vocals that phonetically pick out the main melody as a kind of separate instrument. The common thread that holds it all together is a constant 4/4 beat that keeps everything grounded like an urtext of a Black Lace megamix, and the between track 'applause' and 'chatter' that's designed to give the impression this was recorded live down your local (though it's actually just a bad dub job).
Aspirations as a proper 'party in a can' record then; Chas and Dave used to do this stuff and do it well, but that was partly because they had songs that could stand up in their own right but - and more importantly - they also brought a huge amount of personality and goodwill to everything they did. We all knew who Chas and Dave were and you could imagine them belting their stuff out in the pub or at your party even when they weren't. And that's the problem with 'Big Party Hits' - there's no 'personality' here. None whatsoever. The vocals and the playing are competent, but that bare minimum is all you get; the rest is up to you the listener, which is probably why I found listening its forced jollity such a joyless exercise.
And ok, like watching 'The Exorcist' on a mobile phone on an August beach, maybe my hearing it solo through clenched teeth and suffering from a bout of gastroenteritis meant I wasn't hearing it in the spirit or context it was intended. But then whilst there's something undeniably sad about drinking alone and putting this on and doing a one man conga to try and cheer yourself up, it's no less sad to imagine a party that needs a record like this to jump start it either. If you have to 'buy in' the party atmosphere from elsewhere then something's gone badly wrong before you start, and if you've enough about you to be able to put on a good bash then you're not going to need nonsense like this are you? Put her down mate or you're going to regret it.
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