ESG - Come Away with ESG (1983)

ESG apparently stands for "emerald, sapphire, and gold," but rocks are about the last things I would use to describe them. This music doesn't "rock," it does something more powerful, yet something slightly nameless. Perhaps the best way to describe it is... it makes you want to dance. This music created by four sisters from the Bronx in 1983 is slightly indescribable. I think the song title "Parking Lot Blues" kind of sums up how this album would be if I dreamt it; black asphalt, surrounded by apartment buildings, people standing, dancing, making music in the heat. For a superficial equation, it seems to combine the kind of acoustic atmosphere present on Suicide, the bass of Jah Wobble on Metal Box, the arrangement of, dare I say it, Steve Reich, in its slowly developing, simple layers and the repeated entering and exiting and entering again of its musicians, with the funkiness of the funk. The songs are individual, yet, with their similar bass lines and progression, and one repeating tom run that seems to gleefully pop up in every song, they almost resemble a song cycle. ESG is the kind of band that's meant to make only one record; the impact of 11 perfect songs is there, and with any more it would become repetitive. But as it is, the 11 song simply slowly reveal themselves even more every time and never lose their feel. They only need 11 songs because only 11 are needed for a singular impact, repeated over and over, party after party. 11 more songs - i.e., another album - would create a secondary "impact group" that would only seek to compare itself to the first group, and thus, lessen the impact of both groups. And the lyrics are so pure that you're almost unsure if they're subtly with a wink paying tribute to the sensibilities of girl groups past, or if they're just trying to make a damn good dance songs. And I couldn't care less which one it is, because either way, I'll be dancing.

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