Bis: Social Dancing : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Bis are no longer the Scottish teen-pop revolutionaries they were on their 1997 full-length debut, The New Transistor Heroes, but they still make songs as effervescent as a mouthful of Pop Rocks. The second album from the Glasgow trio -- vocalist-keyboardist Manda Rin and guitarists-vocalists-brothers John Disco and Sci-Fi Steven -- replaces Heroes' riotous New Wave roar with a panoply of nouveau-retro twists. This time the guitars are tuned, the drum-machine beats are smoother, and the pep-rally yelps are more determinedly melodic, from the dead-on Eighties synth of "Eurodisco" to the droll, dubby trip-hop of "Detour." "Action and Drama" disses computerized dance music: "I like my idols human / Not programmed in computers" -- yet the beatbox-driven track is so danceable that it seduces even as it scolds. The Bis kids have turned a neat trick with Social Dancing: They've aged their sweet teen-punk image into ear candy with a pleasingly tart aftertaste. (RS 821)

NEVA CHONIN