Fancy - Turns You On (1976/2026) [Hi-Res]

Review by Dave Thompson
There are no two ways around it, "She's Riding the Rock Machine" has some of the crassest lyrics you've ever heard, a more or less autobiographical account of vocalist Annie Kavanagh's career so far, underpinned by a fabulous funky rhythm but horribly, hopelessly undermined by the chanted title. She's riding the rock machine indeed. Good thing she never chose a career in needlework. The band members certainly have their chops down well. There are hints of an infinitely more soulful Average White Band in the soundscapes, with guitarist/songwriter Ray Fenwick letting loose with some often dramatic solos. But it's Kavanagh who's the star of the show. Comparable to both Curved Air's Sonja Kristina and Vinegar Joe's Elkie Brooks, but as dynamically individual as either of them (even when faced with the most excrutiating lyric), Kavanagh rises so far above the occasion that it's impossible to believe her career ended here. Confront her with the handful of undisputed classics at the band's disposal, and she's a veritable colossus. Most of the highlights are covers -- a churning, turbulent reinvention of Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made to Love Him," a punchy revision of "You've Been in Love Too Long," the dramatic slow blues of Mose Allison's "Everybody's Cryin' Mercy." But the album's U.K. title track, "Something to Remember," and the grand ballad "Stop" are equally vibrant indications of the band's own abilities, and one cannot help but feel that with a little more time, a little less haste, and a few better lyrics, Turns You On could have emerged among the finest white funk albums of the age. Instead, it leaves us merely wondering what might have been.