Stay Up Forever

Stay Up Forever

Chungking [Institute]

2 October, 2007 | 12.19PM

• Written by: Lolo Van der Venne
• Filed under: Music Recommendations: chungking, institubes, stay up forever

Hailing from Brighton, former couple Chungking are Jesse Banks and Sean Hennesy.

This is the follow up to the critically acclaimed album ‘The Hungry Years’ and is the sound of sophisticated “poptronica” – think Allison Goldfrapp having a steamy love affair with Debbie Harry of Blondie, and then dancing for a bit with Kylie Minogue and Gwen Stefani.

The breathless and alluring vocal talents of Banks draw you in like a heady perfume to ‘I Love You’ and ‘Beautiful Inside’ while stand out tracks ‘It Could Be Wonderful’ and ‘Know What You Mean’ takes the analogy from “drawing inspiration from Goldfrapp” to “stalking Goldfrapp”.

Unfortunately, unlike Goldfrapp, sometimes this album errs too much on the commercial side (’Itch and Scratch’, ‘Baby’ and ‘Slow It Down’) with vaporous tracks that quickly become quite annoying.

As a rule, the down-tempo tracks like ‘I Love You’, ‘Beautiful Inside’ and ‘Maybe It’s Over’ work the best.

The voice of Jesse Banks is the embodiment of the femme fatal; glamorous, sexy and intoxicating.

It’s this talent rather than anything strikingly original on this album which engages your attention and makes a few of the tracks distinctly unforgettable.

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