Donna Summer - The Wanderer

You know what i'm gonna do? I'm going to open this factory sealed copy of Donna Summer's The Wanderer and listen to it.

Why?

Well, remember when Laura Nyro helped David Geffen become a millionaire? He used that money to create Asylum Records, then wandered over to the world of film, then negotiated a deal with Warner Brothers and founded Geffen Records. This is literally the first record Geffen published in 1980.

You know her as a disco superstar, but this is not disco. This is full on synth pop with some seriously hair-bandish guitar solos on the deep cuts (tim may, skunk baxter, and steve lukather: at least two of those names should be familiar to you).

But Bottle, why should i care?

Because before people started misspelling Donna Sommer's name, she was the lead singer of a super obscure psychedelic rock band called Crow. You can hem and haw all you want, but this is just as good as anything Pat Benatar did (and i love Pat Benatar).

Seriously, there's nothing cheesy about this album. It's peppy, but it's not vapid. It's got a little bit of soul, a little bit of new wave, and i honestly don't think any musician would feel silly playing any instrumental part from any of these songs. You can tell when a production team cares about the music they produce, and this is the real deal whether you like 80s dance pop or not.

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