Dance for Your Dinner introduced a promising New York funk outfit heavy on rhythmic interplay, fronted by the seductive Eugenie Diserio, who veers cuts like “She Likes to Beat” closer to Donna Summer than authentic funk. Helped on drums by Material’s Fred Maher, the four songs live up to the band’s intricate intentions.
In Lust finds the Dance stiff and stifled in the studio; the band never stretches out its bass lines and there’s not really enough material to fill an album. Diserio’s softcore eroticism, so appealing on the EP, is held in check.
Soul Force has a similar lack of inspiration. Except for a stirring cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Do Yourself a Favor,” the album never hits a groove, though not for lack of effort. Diserio is the sexiest she’s been, and the production is uncluttered, but the Dance has yet to record anything memorable.