Gossip - Joyful Noise (Music CD)

Ever since their breakout album Standing in the Way of Control, the Gossip has moved in an increasingly pop direction, and never more so than on A Joyful Noise. Inspired by ABBA, the band hired Brian Higgins from production team extraordinaire Xenomania to add a slick sheen to the album, most evident on "Get Lost," Ditto and crew's most convincing pop bid yet. A Joyful Noise actually isn't especially frothy. Higgins balances the band's past and present directions, wrapping "I Won't Play" in synth strings that Gary Numan would be proud to call his own. Despite its dubstep-tinged bass, "Get a Job," a pointed indictment of a poor little rich girl, could have easily appeared on an earlier Gossip album with a more lo-fi approach, and the stand-out "Horns" is an "On the Playground"-style takedown fueled by menacing strings and wah-wah riffs.