It's a risky move to start a band name with "Pretty Good"-- just from the first two words, expectations are remarkably low. It's probably safe to assume Chicagoan Aaron Allieta and Brooklynite Jimmy Giannopoulos picked the name Pretty Good Dance Moves to invoke a self-deprecating, relatable persona-- two likable guys who make dance music, but aw heck, they're just OK at dancing. Regardless of intent, "pretty good" is a qualifier that begs to be disproved. In order to overcome that tag of mediocrity, they've got to make a bold statement, assert themselves, or leave some kind of mark. They've got to make us feel something.
And the context clues suggest that there's something lively in the album's eight tracks. Just based on the album title, cover art, and "electronic" genre tagging alone, this looks like a party record. Naming their album Limo? Splattering their band's name on a black surface in DayGlo pink? Come on. This thing screams rave. Plus, some of their older tracks, like 2009's "Leave Me Alone" and 2008's "Demon Dancing", had movement and life.
But here's the thing about Limo: It's eight songs, called "movements", that bleed into one another and never exactly move. According to Allietta, they set out to record "background music," something "chilled out." And if that's what this album was-- unassuming music that could live in the background-- that might be OK. At the start, it sounds like they're going to fulfill that promise by opening with a quiet, slow burn. But it's not exactly as clear-cut as that. Shortly after the first movement, they introduce loud, squelchy, 8-bit synth lines, which are entirely tacky and bulldoze any calm the album was developing. By "Movement 4", they introduce horns and attempt a menacing tone. It's one of the first bold moves they make, but as with the rest of these "bold" elements on the album (the prominent synths, the occasional heavy beat), they don't springboard off of it with anything else. It's the same uninteresting riff repeated for two minutes, and then they go back to being quiet.
The best decision they made in making Limo was getting Brazilian Girl Sabina Sciubba on vocals. Her voice is a very welcome change of pace. She's got some breathy whispering strung throughout the album, which matches the band's bland movements, but her real stand-out performance comes in the album's final two minutes, where her sultry tone serves as a great closer. But despite its beauty, it's a reminder for how the rest of the album could've used more moments like that last one-- something prominently beautiful or bold or interesting that rises above everything else.
From movement to movement, it's unclear what they're aiming for. Is it incidental ambience or light dance music? It's hard to care either way, really, because of how damn monotonous most of these songs are. Yes, it's an album of movements-- one that flows smoothly from piece to piece-- so they get an A+ for sequencing. But isn't there something to latch onto? Could the stakes be any lower? As dance music, and as atmospheric incidental music, it doesn't quite reach "pretty good." Ultimately, it would be far more interesting to hear these guys fall on their faces while aiming for something ballsy, big, and dramatic. Instead, we get this: an unvarying, unmoving, 30-minute glob of mediocrity.
