Don't Look Now

by John BushDon't look now, but the dance world caught up with you -- two albums ago. Way out West, the duo of Nick Warren and Jody Wisternoff, were early arrivals to Britain's progressive house party, pioneering the sleek melodies and polished breaks of mainstream British dance during the early '90s, following closely on from Oakenfold's vision of stadium house. After a self-titled 1997 LP debut saw them poised to blaze further trails, its 2001 follow-up, Intensify, was definitely a step backward; WoW sounded very confident, but the music lacked any hint of justification for that belief. Third album Don't Look Now isn't impressive, either. It's an admitted grab for pop-chart fame, with Warren and Wisternoff lugging along a new vocalist, Omi, who despite protestations of real talent, simply apes the sound of nearly every other female vocalist who's been heard in a house production unit since the end of the millennium. (Her languorous voice is teased out with a few processing tricks.) The beats are trad beyond belief, the production is pedestrian (even for commercial house), and worse yet, the duo haven't written a single compelling song, much less the next Dirty Vegas television crossover they'd need to carry a record like this. What dance fans will move to is a far cry from what drives pop fans, and Don't Look Now barely manages the former. Instead of sticking with the rest, Way out West should start thinking about what it was that made them distinctive ten years earlier. [Limited editions included a bonus-disc mix album that featured a few Way out West post-productions.]