Kevin Saunderson Presents Inner City - Bad Girl

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  • "Bad Girl" is Kevin Saunderson's tribute to the late Donna Summer, who was an obvious inspiration for his band Inner City's diva anthems. "Bad Girl," the first new Inner City track in quite some time, has an appropriately reverent air to it, using Summer's own "Bad Girls" chorus as its bittersweet hook. Emotional impact aside, it's a rote take on disco house circa 2014: Saunderson's got the chord progression down but everything else is polished to an impersonal gleam. Even the string breakdown feels forced, and after a while the chanting chorus turns perfunctory, lazy where it should be soaring. As a tribute, it feels honest and heartfelt, but as a comeback for a classic house act, it's lacking. The situation isn't helped by the unimaginative choice of remixers. House Of Virus offer a blandly of-the-moment remix with bounding Korg M1 chords and cheesy white noise patches, while Saunderson's son Dantiez teams up with Three20 for an equally humdrum effort. P-Ben's goes big-room with it, and only 7th Star takes a risk, turning the track into a Butch-style vortex of spider-web basslines and spoken-word snippets. It takes Tommy Onyx's chunky radio edit to really nail the track, dialling up the disco and turning down the tech. It makes a far better tribute to Donna's legacy—sexy, flamboyant and catchy—than any of the other versions.
  • Tracklist
      01. Bad Girl (Kevin Sauderson NYC Club Mix) 02. Bad Girl (House of Virus Remix) 03. Bad Girl (Dantiez Sauderson & Three20 Remix) 04. Bad Girl (7th Star Remix) 05. Bad Girl (P-Ben Remix)
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