The disco revival may have peaked in 2013, then started to fade, but nobody told the L.A. duo
Kisses. Like their excellent album from that year
Kids in LA, 2015's
Rest in Paradise is a smooth, funky record flaked in shards of disco balls and coated in glitter and perfume. Unlike previous records, this time out they didn't focus on making perfect studio-built records, instead trying to capture a more organic sound. To that end, Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson called in the band
Midnight Magic to fill out the tracks, and their loose-limbed grooves synch up perfectly with Kivel's songs. Whether cranking out pulsing dancefloor fillers like "A Groove" and "Control," taking a page out of producer Robin Hannibal's playbook regarding the creation of perfect late-night ballads on "Sun" and "Fred Roses," or dipping into soft rock sounds with the languid "Eternal,"
Kisses prove over and over that the high quality of songwriting and music-making they've displayed in the past was no fluke. They have a highly developed skill set, maybe one of the sharpest around as far as whipping up dance music that's just as rewarding to listen to with the lights turned down low as it would be in the club. The mix of softly sung, relaxedly played tracks with those designed to get feet moving makes for an extremely balanced album. Only the album-ending title track lets down the side just a tiny bit, but even that song's pleasant meandering can't disguise the intense focus and attention to detail that went into the rest of the album. Not content to merely strip the best parts of the past and work them into a derivative experience, on
Rest in Paradise Kisses inject plenty of soul and imagination into their retro excavations, which makes their retro-neo-disco sound fresh and familiar in the best way. ~ Tim Sendra