Bitter:Sweet
Drama
Quango Music Group
Web Site
I’m not going to pretend I know all about everything that goes into Bitter:Sweet’s follow-up to its critically acclaimed debut, The Mating Game. It’s electronic, yet grand and cinematic, yielding the kind of selections music supervisors salivate over for wide, sweeping shots of bright yellow beaches and crystal blue oceans on a cloudless sunny day. Chill and jazzy, yet sultry and explosive, like watching the onscreen romance of Bogie and Bacall and knowing exactly what they’re thinking without either of them saying a word about it.
I can go on forever about the atmospheric array. The opening surf guitar riff and brass on “Trouble” make it the perfect chase scene song in a James Bond movie. You can’t help but smile when whistling and a light-hearted clarinet take over in “Sugar Mama” while Shana Halligan so sweetly (as always) sings, “Could you open up your wallet? / So I can peak inside / Do you have a car to drive / And a job that pays you right? / Cuz baby, I’m not the sugar mama kind.” It’s a musical-type number that brings to mind Halligan walking through a live-action park with cartoon bluebirds singing and flowers blossoming.
By no coincidence has the duo’s (whose other half is comprised of Kiran Shahani) music appeared on numerous television shows, commercials and movies; it’s almost too easy to imagine the perfect scene while getting lost in the jazz, tango, string arrangements and sugary vocals.
But where the previous album was subtler and in some ways, black and white, Drama bursts into unrestrained, widescreen Technicolor, if you will. “The Bomb,” in all its big-band chorus glory, even became the theme song for “Lipstick Jungle” long before this album was released.
If I can say one thing about Drama, it’s that the music reflects an astonishing maturity its songwriters acquired over the past two years. They looked at what worked on the last one and made it better, while at the same time pushing themselves both musically and vocally. And you know what? The experience is really quite breathtaking. Yeah, you heard me: breathtaking. Make no mistake: The “bitter” in Bitter:Sweet is all show.