Party On

In popular music over the last 60 odd years there has never been a shortage of bands who have put out one or two great albums or tracks and then fallen completely off the radar, hence the common phrase ‘one hit wonder’. Indeed, the sad fact is that the commercial shelf life of many bands and musicians, even today, is incredibly short-lived, and sustained commercial success is enjoyed by only by a small few; this reality is something that is very easy to miss for the average music fan. American band Pure Energy were no stranger to this phenomenon. Apart from a few dance-floor hits and the accomplishment of coming up with what has to be the most 80’s band name in existence, the 4 piece post-disco group never really attracted much attention. Releasing their first album in 1980, the short 33 minute, 6 track release features a number of quite generically 80’s post-disco jams. It is not a bad album per se but there is also nothing particularly outstanding about it as a complete work when you compare it to some of the amazing post-disco dance albums being released at the same time. Listen to the 6 track album ‘Get On Up & Do It Again’ released only a year later by the Canadian band Suzy Q as one example and maybe you will understand this view; every track on it is outstanding! Paradoxically, Pure Energy’s biggest claim to fame, albeit indirectly, is that two of its members ,Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens, wrote the smash hit song ‘Holiday’ featured on Madonna’s 1983 debut album.

Despite only releasing one album, Pure Energy put out 9 singles between 1980-1984 on disco record label Prism. In their limited repertoire, there appear to be two tracks that really stand out. The first is the single ‘Break Away’ from 1983 and the second, ‘Party On’ coming off their first and only album ‘Get It Up’; both of them upbeat but sad love songs. By far the most exceptional thing about these tracks is the production. Both of them have what could possibly be the perfect post-disco sound of the early 80’s; it is clean and punchy. The drums are not too over-produced the lead and backing vocals, horns and strings are not too corny and the bass line’s are extremely funky; everything about these two tracks is brilliant. When you have a listen to many of Pure Energy’s other works you might just find that the music reflects the band name, extremely 80’s and not necessarily in a positive way. It seems that one of the few examples where they have managed to pull this sound off successfully is with the Italo-Discoesque track ‘Spaced Out’, it is very different to ‘Break Away’ and ‘Party On’, but a great jam in its own right.