I absolutely love Beth Ditto's new self-titled EP, her debut solo effort, and since downloading it I have played it over and over. It's small but perfectly formed and consists of four brilliant tracks produced by British electro kings 'Simian Mobile Disco'.
Although her distinctive vocals are unmistakable, Ditto has shown a different, softer side to her. The tracks are less 'rocky' and have an eighties disco and early nineties house feel to them, with Ditto going into full diva mode on 'I Wrote The Book'.
Here is a breakdown of the tracks below:
First up is my favourite track on the EP, ‘I Wrote The Book’, a fabulous up-tempo track with an old school house sound. Ditto’s voice works perfectly on this and the song gets me up and jumping around my living room, TV remote in hand, giving it ‘all that’.
There is also a fantastic video, which I can't show on here because it's through Vevo, which has Ditto in full blow Madonna appreciation mode, borrowing from ‘Justify My Love’ and ‘Vogue’, in particular.
Things slow down on the second track, Goodnight Good Morning, an end of the night track for those that still don't want to leave the dance-floor. Featuring retro synth sounds and a repetitive drum-beat, it is left to Ditto's vocals to gently carry you along, which she does with ease.
The pace picks up slightly on Open Heart Surgery, the most retro inspired track of all, in my opinion. There is a synth overload, in a good way, on this song that builds progressively and reaches a crescendo of brilliant Ditto vocals.
Do You Need Someoneis the track that made me decide to check out this EP, after hearing on the radio a few weeks ago. A dark and deep song, which for me has the most obviously 'Produced by Simian Mobile Disco' sound. Ditto's voice is brilliantly haunting on this track particularly in the chorus. It was a tough call but this track was just edged into second place for me.
So what do you think of the EP? What do you think of video? Which is your favourite track? Let me know in the comments below.
