3 out of 5

Label: Permanent Vacation

Produced by: Ed DMX

A completely straight-faced – and thus inherently silly – set of 80s new-wave / 90s r&b electro jams from Ed DMX, all vocals, all funky, and pretty damn fun.

While this has been one of Ed’s stylistic modes over however many years, it feels like it’s been awhile since he’s dived this deep into genre, and it’s also one of his most technically impressive productions along those lines, absolutely nailing the chintzy vibe and synth sounds and the sincere, if disaffected, vocal layer – singing odes to parties and making love. Within this, we get a very modern, warm, and fairly dense sound, Ed adding a lot of little flourish and funky touches that mark the music as his, and not some rediscovered curio.

The range is somewhat limited, though. The general pace and tone hit at about the same level throughout, though Ed does work hard, between wiggly synths and singalong choruses, to give each track a hook. Moving the album from pop to r&b also gives it some more depth.

But it kinda drops off at the end, with Ed’s flat vocals not strong enough to carry the slowed down ballad The Key, and the final two dub variations not distinct enough from the originals to necessarily merit the extra runtime.

Ultimately, though, Party Life I think succeeds at what it sets out to do: to be fun; to be the soundtrack to that imagined party life you had back in the 80s. Normally not my electro scene, but Ed makes it worthwhile.