Escort: Animal Nature review – nifty production and brassy abandon

The seeds of a glorious party soundtrack are contained in the second album by New York’s disco troupe Escort. They have a fine live reputation and the brassy abandon of closer Dancer, recorded during a recent show, conveys the sweaty joy of encountering their 15-piece orchestra in person. Inevitably, some of the studio tracks suffer by comparison; you can imagine Barbarians as an irresistible call to arms in a Brooklyn basement, but it falls a little flat here. But there’s nifty production work elsewhere – the Hall & Oates-indebted If You Say So especially – and even the weaker moments act as a powerful enticement to catch them live.