Album Review: Life is Easy by Bright Light Bright Light

Thank God for Bright Light Bright Light. It’s about time that someone made some quality pop music. Pop music that is fun, but still retains its self-respect and sophistication. Bright Light Bright Light is, of course, the stage name for Rod Thomas’ pop project that aims to make you dance, smile and remember why you fell in love with pop music in the first place.

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The 2012 debut by Welsh singer-producer Rod Thomas, who works as Bright Light Bright Light, was voted that year's fourth-best album in the Guardian readers' poll, an unexpected accolade for a fringe artist inspired by the moment in the late 1980s when synthpop collided with house music. Life Is Easy offers more bittersweet iterations of his primary theme, which couples spun-sugar melodies with passive-aggressive guiltmongering. As the wronged party, Thomas often takes the moral high ground: "It's enough to see someone you love move on, and when they're gone, it's enough to know you tried to keep them safe," he murmurs, on Everything I Ever Wanted, which could be an elegant Pet Shop Boys outtake; on I Wish We Were Leaving, he and a beautifully spent-sounding Elton John croon: "One day you'll make somebody so happy, but it won't be me.

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