Here's Willy Moon

A New Zealand wannabe pop idol who samples Wu-Tang Clan, has moves like Elvis, covers Little Willie John and Screamin' Jay Hawkins (while gleefully ripping off the Yardbirds), Willy Moon doesn't fit into anybody's definition of a conventional star in 2013. Instead, he is a glorious oddity, a cheeseball peddling a vision of the past learned entirely through YouTube, creating records that are unwitting throwbacks to a bygone era — not the '50s, but rather the decadent height of the late '80s/early '90s, when Langer/Winstanley ushered Rick Astley onto the top of the charts around the world. Willy Moon doesn't have the vocal chops of Astley, nor is he purely a song-and-dance man. Most of the time, he sounds like forgotten '90s novelty Jimmy Ray blown up for the big screen and projected in black & white. There are blues and rock & roll covers aplenty — "Shakin'," "I Put a Spell on You," "Shakin' All Over," "Bang Bang," all grouped at the end, as if Willy and his producers got tired of reworking old tunes so they just threw in the towel — but there is not even a feigned attempt at authenticity on Here's Willy Moon. This is all gaudy glitz, a cheerful pantomime for an audience that may not even exist, as it's hard to discern what generation would swoon for these swinging, corny retro novelties. And yet that's precisely the appeal of Here's Willy Moon: this is music that is out there, it is not cooked up by consultants and marketers, it's a truly, genuinely strange attempt at something new — it may miss its mark but that's why it's fascinating. Plus, it's got a good beat and you can dance to it.