24 March 2024

Album artwork

GOSSIP (1999–2016, 2019–2020, 2023–present), the disco-pop-punk trio
from Arkansas, led by the great voice/face Beth Ditto have their 6th LP,
called Real Power, their first in 14 years, out now.

Press info: The album marks a reunion with acclaimed producer Rick Rubin, who helmed the band’s pivotal 2009 album Music For Men. Recorded at Rubin’s home studio in Kauai, the process was temporarily halted by the pandemic and resumed when restrictions lifted. The result is an 11-track celebration of the galvanizing might of music, the joy of creative expression, and the power of chosen family in the aftermath of collective and personal trauma. The timing is ripe for a Gossip reunion, and Real Power heralds a new maturity
and renewed sense of purpose for the trio.

Ditto: “When we began, so much about Gossip was about running away—that was always in the musi. We survived. We came from nothing, and we got the fuck out of there. And to be here 20 years later and still making music together is just incredible.”

NME says: ‘Real Power’ is Gossip’s first release since reuniting in 2019. A focused and polished collection, these 11 tracks find the band continuing a career-long trajectory of shaving down their roughest edges. A “celebration of creative expression”, according to force-of-nature frontwoman Beth Ditto, Gossip’s sixth studio effort sees the trio bend into various new shapes that sharply reframe a host of the band’s familiar tropes. A joyous and compassionate return, ‘Real Power’ proves that Gossip’s clear-headed maturity has ensured they achieve its titular sentiment. Score: 4/5.

TUTV: Musically Real Power sounds more like a new Beth Ditto solo record
than a collective Gossip effort. Well, both Ditto and Gossip got away from their early
disco-punk firework days for a very long time now. So, many years older and more
life-experienced now, they combined their forces once again to make a record that
reflects their grown-up present and their jiving joy of still making music together
25 years after they hit the scene for the first time.

They skip the high-powered punk-infused, now irrelevant, cry outs of yesteryear and
go directly to a series of mid-tempo, sway-swing-along pop tunes for lazy summer garden parties for all ages (Act Of God / Real Power / Crazy Again / Give It Up For Love).

Titillating music that made zippy images pop up in my mind of soul diva Chaka Kan backed by Nile Rodger’s funky Chic freaks. Gossip also provide some laid-back, feel-good melodies (Tell Me Something / Edge Of The Sun / Tough / Peace And Quiet) to close the evening at decent hours with a big smile on everybody’s happy faces. Welcome back.

Singles/Clips: Crazy Again / Real Power / Act Of God  

– CRAZY AGAIN –

– ACT OF GOD –

– REAL POWER –

ALBUM

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GOSSIP: Instagram