Alexa - Wanderlust

Alright, hands up if you remember this one. Now that precisely three people have put their hands up, let me introduce the rest of you waiting expectantly to Alexa. Born of the mind of Paul Sabu, the disco-to-AOR pipeline standard setter who had more fingers in 80s music pies than a particularly clumsy baker, this might be as pure as the genre gets. Even still, it’s pretty difficult to dig up too much information on this one outside of giving Paul Sabu himself a ring and asking about it, and I imagine he’d be far too busy making cool sounds on whatever he could find to give a specific answer. If you’ve got a spare weekend, check out all the albums he has a production credit on; the man has more 80s rep than Flashdance and Patrick Swayze put together. Yes, I know Ghost came out in 1990, I’m not a philistine.  

Like someone who needs to get their phone to set an alarm from the next room, we come back to Alexa. With spellbinding throaty vocals by opera-trained Alexa Anastasia and keys so aggressive it sounds like Paul Sabu is slamming his hands down on the board rather than using his pie-covered fingers, this is a slice of undeniable 80s so full-bodied it’ll knock you backwards. It’s AOR to its very core, using every single setting on the mixing desk and having an absolute whale of a time while doing it, and there are going to be a lot more of you doing the same now you’ve heard it. Apologies to those of you who are lactose intolerant - you might want to skip this week and come back next time.