Music Review: “The Odyssey” by New Life Crisis

If you’re like me and loved the glitter rock of the late ’70s and the dance music of the ’80s brought to us from across the pond by bands like the Cure, Depeche Mode, the Clash and OMD, and outrageous performers like Elton John and, perhaps most important, father of androgyny David Bowie…

And if you too dressed up in a leopard jumpsuit, 8-inch platforms and a silver space jacket and dyed your spiked hair red for Halloween when your college buddies wore bunny and witch costumes, you will no doubt appreciate New Life Crisis’s latest album, The Odyssey.

NLC, dubbed the “Hardest Working Band in the Hamptons,” created The Odyssey as a tribute to Bowie and other artists and songs the Thin White Duke inspired and influenced. Produced in 2011 by Paul Mahos, lead singer of NLC, and master of transformational performances and engineer Vinnie Tattanelli, the band’s third album combines the electric techno feel of a dance club with the seamlessness of a great rock jam—part DJ and part musicians, something Mahos and the band have perfected, creating one awesome party!

With Jeff Allegue on lead guitar and Steve O’Brien on drums, Mahos takes the listener through this sultry, sexy celestial journey beginning with dance favorite “Ashes to Ashes,” then segues gently into “Under the Milky Way” and “Love Song” with undertones of Nine Inch Nails’ primal song “Closer” (which usually brings a dance crowd to a frenzy). The fifth track brings us back to Bowie’s classic “Space Oddity” and the Peter Shilling song it inspired, “Major Tom,” then keeping up the tempo while soothing the listener with one of my light dance favorites, “Satellite of Love,” written by Lou Reed and produced by Bowie.

Not to be out shown by a European predecessor, Bono and U2 make an appearance with NLC’s mash- up of “New Year’s Day,” and things continue soaring through the atmosphere with Sir Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” undeniably influenced by Bowie. And finally we are brought back down to earth, returning to the postlude “Ashes to Ashes.”

Hail to the captain of the ship, Paul Mahos, the boys of New Life Crisis and to Bowie, the original ‘Starman’ himself.  My only complaint is that the journey is too short. I wanted the music and the party to continue. But doesn’t one say that of every great trip?