As we well know, last year Bright Light Bright Light launched his third album “Choreography”. It’s coming about stemmed from Rod Thomas’s love of films, more specifically of the music that has played an instrumental part in some of the best loved films of the 80s and 90’s. The tracks which have served to fully build a memorable scene into an iconic movie moment.
Whilst “Choreography” circled its attention to spark movie made influence in the fabric of its melodically hued pop core, the spin off “Cinematography” EP’s concentrate on re-working some of the tracks which where the source of inspiration for “Choreography” in the first instance.
Rod has been really quite clever; he’s given more relevance to putting out a collection of cover songs. And in so doing even though most of us are already familiar with these classics, they take up a further nu-retro stance of poptasticness in the hands of Rod Thomas. For “Cinematography II : Back In The Habit” Rod digs deeper into an alternative vein, dabbling in downbeat balladry on “Calling You”, “Stay (I Missed You)” and “New World“. Whilst, not losing sight of a sense of disco glitz on “Run With Us”, “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” and “Causing A Commotion”. Back In The Habit is an EP of two halves. Light and Dark. When fused together as a collection it adds layers of dynamically affluent richness and allows Rod to go to spaces in spacey sonic pop which he hasn’t crossed into for the better part of his incarnation as Bright Light Bright Light.
By the way, what Rod has made of Bjork’s “New World” is what I call a winning combination of a defining moment and utter gorgeousness. Rod really has out done himself with this simply splendid interpretation to my mind. The execution is way up there in proficiency and creative vision.