How rude would it be for me to call a married woman, a married woman whose husband isn't me, a tease?
"Drifting" (digital remix maxi-single)
Artist: Plumb featuring Dan Haseltine
Label: Curb
How rude would it be for me to call a married woman, a married woman whose husband isn't me, a tease?
What else to call Plumb-whom I'm finally accustomed to calling a "she," as in a solo singer, and not a "they," as in a band-who releases a great little midtempo single wth Jars Of Clay's leader accompanying her without a firm date for an album on which said single would appear? Oh, well.
The ongoing strategy of Plumb's positioning as a contempo' Christian chanteuse open to the hipper end of the general market adult contempo' spectrum and dance diva-dom because none of them seem an entirely natural fit for her. The irony is that her square pegness to round hole formatting may largely be due to her material and persona being so genuine. She's a singing Christian mom and wife (made that last distinction clear already, eh?) not quite fitting into the Nash Vegas cookie cutter for gal pop vocalists, nor is she the larger'n life figure of overpowering womanhood per the popular image of a distaff disco belter. And who the heck has the moxie to sing songs to their kids and against cutting oneself to thumping house beats?! Plumb has it, and she's done better than may be expected by those unorthodox moves.
"Drifting" isn't as exotic in subject matter compared to her previous club and rhythmic radio mix show remix hits. Lyrically, it sounds like a pre-evangelistic offer to help a lost, unbelieving friend. That it's verbally ambiguous enough to be interpreted as an offer from one friend to another regardless of spiritual affiliation or commitment plays into the song's favor for acceptance under a dance floor's strobe lights, but believing listeners will discern Plumb's and lead Jar Haseltine's possible "sun/Son" double entendre, too. However you hear it, the song's practically humble wthin the context of dance fare's ramptant egocentism and emotional enormity.
The production on the original version (not included in the maxi-single) is already mighty voluminous, with its swells of synth chords on the choruses and brdge, the latter being where Haseltine's voice is most prominent. Mixin Marc and Tony Svejda follow something of the same template, surrounding the vocals with less emphatically rhythmic whooshes on the verses and ramping up the stiff, sometimes ornate tech-house arrangeement elsewhere. The post-production duo's rerub also comes in abbreviated radio and mix show edits.
Fear Of Tigers go for a a beefy '80s elrectro-pop approach on his/their (FOT's a one-man band) recasting, recalling post-Computer World Kraftwerk, D.A.F. and Blancmage, albeit with harder percussion than those Germans and Britons managed during the Reagan decade. As with everyone's contributions, there's a radio edit as well.
London/Berlin duo Loverush U.K.! turn in what, from online reviews I've read, the fan favorite of the lot presented here. A beat that finds the sweet spot 'tween disco and house, a bit of liberty taken with the vocals and a nigh classicist arrangemnent with quality keyboard filigrees and riffs. Now if the guys responsible for it would see fit to update their website in such a way to make mention of it, all the better for all concerned! As with the other full-length mixes presented here, this one doesn't fade out, but ends cold.
The song's original version failed to crack the top 20 at Christian radio's adult contemporary format, but the remixes recently scraped the top 5 of Billboard 's club play chart. If all the goodness critiqued above isn't sufficient for your fix of Plumb before another album drops, there are at least two other remixes of "Drifting" to be heard on YouTube. Either way, it's good have her back, however much of a tease she's being.
(Tangentially...hey Dan, any time you want to commercially issue the heretofore promo-only, and awesomely epic, Junior Vasquez remix of your band's greatest hit, "Flood," you would make at least a few people happy until your day job band's next longplayer drops to retail, too. Whatever you guys may not still like about it, I surely don't understand.)
-Jamie Lee Rake
****1/2
