Track of the Moment

Get into Alesha’s groove

June 18, 2009 1 Comment

Remember Mis-Teeq? Neither do I, but a check of Billboard tells me the British girl group reached #35 in 2004 with a little something called “Scandalous.” The trio, who’d had better success in the UK, went their separate ways the following year, but member Alesha Dixon‘s bid for solo stardom suffered a major detour when her debut was shelved in 2006. Fired Up was finally issued in early 2008, but only in Japan.

In between that time, Dixon won the hearts of Britain’s dialing public with a first-place finish on Strictly Come Dancing (the show which birthed Dancing With The Stars here). Dixon’s second disc, dubbed The Alesha Show, came out in November, almost a year after the top hoofer took home the glitterball trophy.

The Xenomania-crafted first single, “The Boy Does Nothing,” with its musical nod to Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5,” was something of a novelty itself, but managed to reach #5 in the UK. “Breathe Slow,” the follow-up, was polar-opposite in tone and quite a lovely tune at that, doing even better at #3. But it’s the third single, “Let’s Get Excited,” that has been stuck on repeat in the back of my head since picking up The Alesha Show in March. And stylistically, it’s miles apart from the previous two.

With its prominent use of green lasers, the video for “Let’s Get Excited” recalls Jennifer Lopez’s “Waiting For Tonight,” another club-set classic. Dixon looks fantastic, and wisely throws in a few “Vogue”-era Madonna moves, timed to lyrics about doing it “the Madonna way.” Gee, I wonder why I like the groove of this one so much:

I’ve been holding off featuring Alesha Dixon here, hoping her album would get a domestic release. As of today however, only “The Boy Does Nothing” is available for download here in the States (via iTunes). But The Alesha Show is one hot ticket, so fans of real pop music shouldn’t hesitate to pony up for a reasonably priced import from resellers at Amazon.