Hercules And Love Affair: Hercules And Love Affair

Hercules

And Love Affair, a disco act featuring the quivering voice of art-rock star

Antony, hearkens back to a mode of disco in which quivering vocals by someone

as weird or weirder than Antony would hardly count as novel. The model is the

kind of lithe, rapturous disco spun by epochal DJ Larry Levan at the Paradise

Garage, where hi-hat beats sprayed and horn lines wobbled out of shape. Antony

sings significantly on five songs, including the propulsive single "Blind," but

the highlight moments wander between everything from the woozy horns of

"Hercules Theme" to the mournful synth patches in the mid-tempo pop song

"Iris." There's something nagging about the literalness of such a thoroughly

throwback exercise, but Hercules mastermind Andrew Butler has a real knack for

arrangement and emotional range. He knows when to kick disco into action and

when to just kick back and listen.