Dana Jean Phoenix – Pixeldust

EN/DE

It has been a little while since our last album review, which doesn’t mean that there haven’t been a number of great releases out since then. One of the more recent of these releases is @danajeanphoenix ‘s fourth studio album “PixelDust”. While not quite making it into the list of our favorite Synthwave albums of the year, it is a thoroughly well-crafted piece of 80s-inspired electronica.

The album is an intricate mixture of highly dancefloor-compatible, upbeat tunes and dreamy, emotional ballads. The first standout track of the album is the highly energetic “Red Line”. This song is simply made for dancing, and will surely become a regular not only on our party playlist. “Only for One Night” (produced by the Austrian @powernerd_official powerhouse) and “I’ll Rescue You” are probably the catchiest songs of the album, with melodies that get stuck in your head for days and days – we didn’t really mind. With “Lost Touch” and “Funky Fly Free”, Dana shows us her funky side, and boy, she does it well. We wouldn’t mind a song or two more in this direction, because everything just falls into place so nicely in these two songs. The song of the album, however, for us goes to “Iron Fist”. Produced by @straplocked who recently released a killer album himself), this track is full-on 80s rock and roll nostalgia – straight out of our wildest action movie fantasies. Pure perfection. While we are not crazy for synth-ballads, the title track “PixelDust” is simply beautiful and makes for a nice highlight towards the end of the record.

The music aside, our favorite thing about this album is the amazing artwork by Lee Occleshaw. The last time we saw pixel art at this level of perfection was in Thimbleweed Park – Ron Gilbert would be proud. Interestingly, there was also a lot of pixel dust in that game….
Fans of female vocals and melodic synth-pop can’t go wrong with this.