Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Shoot From the Hip

THE REVIEW

After the disco diva Saturday night fever of Read My Lips, Sophie decided to move forward. The debut had gone more than well, the number of copies sold was climbing nicely, and her pretty face was being heralded as one of the most sophisticated and mischievous in the dance-biz. However, the dancing season of 2001-2002, a period when even her colleague and musical counterpart Kylie Minogue was dominating the floors with Fever and related excerpts, seemed immediately datable and exhaustible. And so it was, with the disco revival preparing to lower the curtain a little and leave the stage to the urban/R&B wave.

With the second studio work, Shoot From The Hip (2003), Mademoiselle EB, brought forward by the excellent reviews of Murder On The Dancefloor, Get Over You, and Take Me Home and now determined to definitively abandon the indie-rock aura of her early band (The Audience), turned a page, but not too much: a link between the carefree and frivolous dance of Read My Lips and the glitch-dance pop charm that exploded with the mythical Trip The Light Fantastic, Shoot From The Hip is a transitional album, a work that neither denies the recent brilliance of the debut nor replicates it crudely. Oscillating between dancing shoes and bursts of pop-rock with instrumental and classical hints, Sophie's acid test offers the listener a good curriculum of perfectly pop tracks, yet doesn't manage to reach the peaks of the previous singles. A change of direction not even that drastic, which unfortunately marks the first commercial decline of the artist, at least outside the British home lounges.

With the first single Mixed Up World, one breathes in a full breeze of the lively, sunny, danceable, and joyful spirit of Murder On The Dancefloor mixed with a funkier and "natural" mood than the predecessor, while a disturbing and robotic rhythm shapes the opening track Making Music. The disco-diva tale continues happily with the combination of strings and synth in Another Day, with the trip-hop hints of Love It Is Love, and with the mischievous and cheeky I Won't Dance With You.

Counterbalancing the classic Sophie is a good group of more rock-oriented tracks that add flavor to an otherwise predictable and repetitive tracklist. Noteworthy and enjoyable, therefore, are the romantic ballad-lullaby with a retro-soul aftertaste I Am Not Good At Not Getting What I Want and the Natalie Imbruglia-like pop-rock sweetness conveyed by Hello, Hello. Finally worth mentioning is the bizarre swing-electropop mix of The Walls Keep Saying Your Name and the strong dark disco-rock shades that are easily danceable in You Get Yours.

A transitional album, halfway between the flourishing debut and the extraordinary refined and sensual creativity increasingly less mainstream of recent years, Shoot From The Hip is probably the least appreciable and recognizable "Bextorian" thoroughbred album in the entire career of the beautiful Sophie. It is neither the Murder On The Dancefloor for the last-minute Bextorians nor the Catch You for the most devoted and cultured fans. We are nonetheless facing a good pop album, simple, not sloppy, perfect for delving into the discography of an artist who is emblematic of valid and curated commerciality, as well as a mainstream horizon never trashy or aberrant.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Shoot From The Hip

Making Music - Mixed Up World - I Won't Change You - Nowhere Without You - Another Day - Party In My Head - Love It Is Love - You Get Yours - The Walls Keep Saying Your Name - I Won't Dance With You - I