Beautiful Is as Beautiful Does
Alternative Rock, 2002
Yes, it’s Rupert Giles, the sexiest Watcher in the world, you see on the CD cover. Anthony Stewart Head’s hitherto closest brush to music is having a brother who gave that silly One Night in Bangkok horror (Murray Head) and some nice song sessions on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. Is it a coincidence that after Mr Head left the series that everything about the TV show goes down the chute?
But enough about Buffy. Anthony Stewart Head collaborates with George Sarah and comes out with this, Music for Elevators. Boy, it’s so cool. It’s beyond cool, it’s freaking cool. This is no Mom-and-Pop adult rock tune collection. This is a trance electronica album. You want me to repeat that?
Shades of Deep Forest crossed with Ronan Hardiman with mild influences of garage, acid, and trance make up the fourteen tracks (plus two hidden tracks) on this CD. It takes a bit of getting over my disappointment that Mr Head’s lovely voice is partially masked by a vocoder device most of the time, but boy, Rupert Giles is so cool!
Just listen to him wax in French in Qu’est Ce Que J’ai Fait – it’s pure, unadulterated estrogen meltdown, I tell you. If I can melt, I would have on the spot. That hypnotic beat in the background that reminds me of hot, sweaty… er, things doesn’t improve things much. J’ai fait me, ooh, my lovely hot stud Giles you, j’ai fait me all the way to heaven.
He and Holly Palmer do a discordant John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the cover of We Can Work It Out, which is charming in an insane way, and there’s also the straightforward rocky pop that is Owning My Mistakes. Deep Forest will be so proud of the dark and moody What Can You Tell Me.
But the best track is definitely the epic orgasm heatwave that is All the Fun of the Fair, where guest vocalists Justine Machado and Amber Benson (the latter plays Tara on Buffy) match Mr Head in a duet of erotic trance. The hook is so infectious, I tell you, I keep humming it until I wish someone will hammer it out of my hand.
Oh, and Alyson Hannigan, who plays Willow on Buffy also takes a guest shot at background vocal contributions, although unlike Ms Benson, she speaks rather than sings. Joss Whedon also pens Last Time. Still, take away the Buffy connections and Music for Elevators is still a very well-produced earwax. Anthony Stewart Head channels Sting with ten times the tantric sex factor, and he singing in French… ohhhh. Fait me! Fait me!
