Edie Sedgwick

Taking his moniker from the notorious Andy Warhol actress and one time girlfriend of Bob Dylan, Justin Moyer of El Guapo/ Supersystem has created for himself a whole new persona. Dragged up, transvestite sheik is Moyer's game, like a revamped Ziggy Stardust for the post- LCD Soundsystem generation. His aim? To derail celebrity worship, or perhaps just to make you dance.

With everyone and their retarded cousin buzzin' about concept albums these days, it comes as no surprise that Moyer (or Sedgwick, whatever) has clambered on the bandwagon, pumps and all. The shtick to drag you away from that Green Day album you've been clinging to for the past twelve months is simply centering every song on a different celebrity, except big Arnie Schwarzenegger - who gets two, and naming it after them. 'Robert Downey Jr.' features a chorus of 'Relapse! Recovery!', while his possible dislike for Ally McBeal and that terrible Charlie's Angels movie appears on 'Lucy Liu' ('Girl power! ... Bullshit!). The message can come off as a little hollow if you take it at face value, but then is he being ironic? Post Ironic?! Post pseudo intellectual funky disco ironic?!! Probably not, so just shift straight onto the actual music, which sadly seems to get overlooked by most reviews in favor of a full blown dissection of the meaning behind the glammed up, 5 o'clock shadow sporting lady boy Moyer on the cover. It's full on electroclash, with hints of sassy punk, dirty synths and some major nods to Liquid Liquid, Devo, Suicide and contemporaries like The Soft Pink Truth. When it all comes together the product is excellent and invigorating, as on the pulsing 'Sigourney Weaver' ('In a world where creatures come out at night/ there's a world where girls and girls cum at night') or chant along 'Martin Sheen'.

Her Love Is Real...But She Is Not provides something for all the kids who got bored with Peaches shaking her prosthetic phallus up in their faces, but still feel the need to grind their asses together on some sweaty dance floor downtown. Notable by their absence are Paris Hilton and Michael Jackson, but then maybe Mu had dibs on those particularly tragic cases.

Narcissistic? Certainly. Style over substance? Quite probably. But then that appears to be the point. Wither Edie Sedgwick the band has the same lifespan as Edie Sedgwick the person remains to be seen, but for now one thing seems certain, this record is destined for hip alternative metrosexual discos worldwide. But then that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned, for I like Edie, adhere to the profound statement made by the intellectual giant of out time, Ms Britney Spears, in 'Crossroads': 'I regret that I have but one ass to shake upon the dance floors of these great United States.'

7.7 / 10 — Neil