miércoles, octubre 22, 2025

Rocktrospectiva: The Vibrant Danceable "Move To This" Turns 35

Released on 22 October 1990 "Move To This" was the debut studio album by English singer Cathy Dennis. Dennis was discovered by her manager Simon Fuller in 1986, and worked on the record for three years with Daniel Poku. Together they released the single "C'mon and Get My Love" in 1989, which jump started her career alongside D-Mob.

"Move To This" was a dance-pop record, primarily produced by herself with Phil Bodger, and features contributions by Poku and Nile Rodgers. Two of its tracks, "Just Another Dream" and "Touch Me (All Night Long)", were remixed for single release by Shep Pettibone. The album spawned five singles, the first single, "C'mon and Get My Love", which also appeared on the D Mob album A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That and was credited to either D Mob or "D Mob introducing Cathy Dennis, "Just Another Dream", her biggest hit "Touch Me (All Night Long)", "Too Many Walls" & finally "Everybody Move". Despite four of its five singles reaching top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, the album was only a minor success, stalling at number 67 in the United States.

Cathy Dennis’ Move To This emerged as an anomaly—a vibrant, self-possessed debut that married club credibility with melodic intelligence, that ended to predict the future of dance-pop, introduced via D-Mob's "C'mon and Get My Love" in 1989. That single—technically the first of five released from the album, it was a collaboration, but it felt like a star's first breath. Riding the acid-house wave that had begun to permeate the UK club scene, the track was pulsing and immediate, and Dennis’ vocal—simultaneously euphoric and grounded—gave it its emotional center despite the naivety in the lyricism, but also a knowingness: a woman issuing an invitation on her own terms, at a time when female pop voices were often reduced to being reactive rather than assertive.

This duality full of confidence and accessibility was what defined Move To This. The album was a masterclass in how to translate club culture into the language of mainstream pop without diluting its essence. Another great single was "Just Another Dream," carried the same urgent heartbeat, but with more vulnerability here, particularly in its vocal phrasing, this was dance-pop with emotional texture, a quality that remains rare.

Her biggest hit was "Touch Me (All Night Long)," the album's biggest global hit, and the most sophisticated, originally a cover of Fonda Rae's 1984 club track, Dennis (along with producer Shep Pettibone) transformed it into a glossy, piano-led anthem—pure pop on the surface, but underscored by tension. The single succeded on the Billboard Hot 100 #2 and a UK Top 10, this cemented Dennis not just as a performer, but as a curator of sound. "Too Many Walls" arrived in late 1991, Dennis had stepped away from the dancefloor to offered a beautiful ballad drenched in melancholy and structural elegance, it was a gamble. Co-written with Anne Dudley, it’s arguably one of her most affecting performances, both vocally and compositionally.

Finally "Everybody Move," it returned to the ebullient pulse of her earlier tracks, but now with the benefit of greater control and refinement. While it didn't replicate the chart impact of its predecessors, its inclusion as the closing single was symbolic: Dennis had traversed genres, tempos, and expectations, and now she was choosing the terms of her exit from that first phase.

The production gathered a variety of talents including Pettibone and Phil Bodger, is sleek without being sterile. The arrangements are clean and rhythmically propulsive, making ample use of early digital synthesizers and drum programming, while still giving Dennis room to breathe. Dennis's work was not designed to dominate—it was designed to last, it was not just a debut, but a declaration. A pop album made by someone who understood dance music.

Despite it was a dance pop record, it showed more strengths than weaknesses, the singer standed out for her charisma and warm delivery on danceable and infectious tracks, which mark the album's strongest moments, her work reinforced  England's relevance in the dance music scene of that period.
 
Move To This Track List:  
 
1. Just Another Dream
2. Touch Me (All Night Long)
3. C'mon And Get My Love (with D-Mob)
4. Too Many Walls
5. Tell Me
6. Everybody Move
7. Move To This
8. My Beating Heart
9. Got To Get Your Love
10. Taste My Love

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