World Goes Round set out to school us on the timeless sound of the eighties as they burst onto the current music scene with their recent, self-titled album ‘World Goes Round’. Made up of Frank Musker, Elizabeth Lamers, Jeff Hull and Marty Walsh, the band boasts an overwhelmingly impressive roster of collaborations between them - Chaka Khan, Queen and Quincy Jones to name but a few of an incredibly well-renowned list. World Goes Round’s collective genius stimulates the track with an infectious flair and slick composition that only such a group of music industry titans could provide. The four members of World Goes Round collaborated 1989 to record the album produced by Tommy Vicari (the mind behind the soundscapes from the likes of Prince and Quincy Jones), which ended up never seeing the light of day. For one reason or another, both personal and contractual, this musical goldmine has languished unheard for more than 30 years. Yet now, all that time later, World Goes Round offer up an undenibale treat for popular music, as these tracks are finally released into the world.
Each track on their recent album is swimming with the soulful, synth-based sounds of the eighties. Opening with the effortlessly energetic first track, ‘Rebel Heart’, World Goes Round immediately showcase the outstanding vocal and emotional range of the group's vocalists Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers. Fusing the fundamental funk of eighties disco with a refreshingly relevant twist, ‘Great Talker’ is an undeniably danceable groove. Rooted in the classic synth stabs and pulsing drums of the ’80s, the closing track ‘Big House’ translates through the changing of stylistic seasons within popular music. Where the group aimed to provide a lyrical identity and political meaning that was shunned when penning mainstream hits back in the day, the group inadvertently created an anthem for a new generation picking up the baton of fighting for climate issues. As Musker claims, “the song was written as a wake-up call thirty years ago;” World Goes Round was ‘woke’ before we knew what that meant and were calling us to arms before we knew what we had to fight for. All ten tracks are pulsing with a vibrant throwback feel, whilst standing firm in the modern musical landscape we all know today. If anything good has come out of the recent lockdown, World Goes Round’s hidden back catalogue finally seeing the light of day has to be a highlight.
World Goes Round Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wgrband
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