With the debuts of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Bronski Beat, and now with the second album by Dead or Alive, it's clear that the British "new music" is sounding more and more like that discredited American genre known as disco. With layers of sleek sequencers and static percussion invoking the locked dance groove of disco, Youthquake maintains a high energy pace best suited for aerobics. Because without the dynamic production or provocative lyrics or even plain old good singing that recommend the best of its peers, this LP is like a night at Area – initially entertaining, occasionally sexy, but very suddenly a bore.

Like all too many dance bands, Dead or Alive finds its musical world inside a nightclub. Songs like "D.J. Hit That Button," "Big Daddy of the Rhythm" and the tongue-tripping British smash "You Spin Me, Round (Like a Record)" allegorize life as a night of dancing. With his darkly feminine aura, lead singer Pete Burns dresses for the part. Burns would like to think his subterranean culture represents something subversive: "My daddy would go crazy if he knew what his baby/Was spending his life doing," he crows on "I Wanna Be a Toy." But with its requisite hip-hop production tricks, Youthquake is as stale as the hustle. "Cake and Eat It" shrilly recycles the rap section of Teena Marie's "Lovergirl"; the eight-minute production extravaganza "It's Been a Long Time" is a pallid Frankie imitation; and Burns' worst vocal moments are as flat as David Johansen's, without any of that singer's compensatory personality. The best moment on the album comes on "In Too Deep," a swaying Culture Club-style tune laced with female vocals. Buffered by the double-timed pace of "You Spin Me, Round" and its companion hit, "Lover Come Back to Me," Youthquake might do as a substitute for Jane Fonda's workout record. But you'll find more good songs on Saturday Night Fever or Bohannon's Greatest Disco Hits. (RS 455)

ROB TANNENBAUM