Polydor
Pop, 1990
Back in the early 1990s, Cathy Dennis burst onto the UK pop scene like a slightly flustered schoolteacher accidentally landing in a rave. With her distinctive chirpy voice and an awkwardly endearing presence, she managed to outlast D-Mob, the very act that gave her the breakout hit C’mon and Get My Love. Funny how life works: the star student ends up with the career while the teacher fades into obscurity.
Move to This is a time capsule of early ’90s UK club culture, blending garage, dubstep, strings, and horns into a frothy cocktail of dance-pop goodness. Tracks like Just Another Dream, Got to Get Your Love, and Taste My Love are so catchy they practically dare you not to bop along. Dennis’s voice may not be operatic, but it’s perfectly calibrated for these upbeat tunes—bright, buoyant, and undeniably infectious.
The album’s crown jewel is her cover of Fonda Rae’s Touch Me (All Night Long), which became her signature hit. However, let’s be honest: Ms Dennis’s voice doesn’t exactly ooze sultriness. It’s more like someone sweetly inviting you to a cup of tea than a steamy late-night rendezvous.
On the flip side, her edgier Everybody Move is a harder club track that still sounds fresh decades later, proving she could bring the energy when the vibe demanded it.
But wait, Cathy Dennis isn’t just about dancefloors and glow sticks. Too Many Walls, the album’s sole ballad, shows her versatility… or at least her willingness to try. The song is undeniably catchy, though you can’t help but wonder what a diva with a powerhouse voice could have done with it. Ms Dennis delivers it earnestly, but the melodrama and theatrics the song begs for remain tantalizingly out of reach.
Ultimately, Cathy Dennis knew her strengths and played to them. Her limited range is cleverly masked by songs that stay comfortably within her vocal wheelhouse, and the result is an album as contagious as anything virus-borne (in the best way).
After her brief time in the spotlight, she transitioned to writing mega-hits for others, like Kylie Minogue’s Can’t Get You Out of My Head and Britney Spears’s Toxic. But for one glorious moment, Move to This put her front and center, and the result was a dance-pop gem that still holds up.
So, if you’re nostalgic for the days of neon lights, acid-washed jeans, and club beats that make you want to shimmy like no one’s watching, give this album another spin. It’s proof that sometimes, even the most unlikely pop stars can create something timeless—and Cathy Dennis did just that, awkward dance moves and all.
