Summernights

Album review

Released in 1977, Summernights is the Hong Kong and Southeast Asian issue of the band's punchy Golden Girls LP, an album which again saw the band in the charts, a stellar feat for an act that history has essentially relegated to the one-hit-wonder heap. Although Silver Convention's star power had cooled by this time, their producers Michael Kunze and Sylvester Levay still managed to pepper this set with sonic nuggets -- hinging string-driven disco to shots of deeper funk in classic Euro-disco style, most notably here across "Hotshot" and "Wolfchild." Shuffled in beside these, of course, are the band's lite-whipped numbers: "Telegram," which owes more to the influence of ABBA than countryman Giorgio Moroder; "Disco Ball," a nice rehash of "Save Me"; and the anthemic title track, which is an edgy keynote. Slick with the sheen that surrounded the Euro-disco movement, Silver Convention again successfully delivered what they promised. And while they may have often been short on substance, they were never far out of style. [In 2015, Summernights was reissued in a Remastered & Expanded Edition featuring two bonus tracks: the single version of "Telegram" and 12" disco version of "Ain't It Like a Hollywood Movie."]

© Amy Hanson /TiVo