Wednesday 29 September 2010

30 You And Me Both - Yazoo


Purchased : June 1984


Tracks : Nobody's Diary / Softly Over / Sweet Thing / Mr Blue / Good Times / Walk Away From Love / Ode To Boy / Unmarked / Anyone / Happy People / And On


This was the first of a string of LPs purchased on cassette because I'd done something rather stupid. After I'd had my new music centre (a leaving home present) six months I decided it was time to change the stylus. The problem was that none of the stores in Leeds recognised the make and advised me to bring the old one in to see if they had something compatible. Therefore I put it in the sleeve pocket of my coat which I neglected to fasten up properly and consequently lost it (probably jumping around at football). And so I had no stylus at all for 6 months until getting the right one in the first shop I tried that autumn.


Although I liked Yazoo I had passed on this when it first came out in July 1983 because I already had the single - "Nobody's Diary" - and I was unduly influenced by John Shearlaw's one-star review in Record Mirror ( I should have remembered that he'd given five stars to albums by Renato and Bow Wow Wow earlier in the year). My interest was rekindled when Radio One did a series of one hour programmes on female singers one of which was on Alison Moyet and they played "Unmarked" which I thought was fabulous. Therefore when I saw the cassette in Bostock's , Leeds   for £2.99 I jumped at it.

This  was  Yazoo's  second  and  final  album  made  when  Vince  Clarke  and  Alison  Moyet  were  barely  speaking  to  each  other  and  their  split  was  announced  as  soon  as  the  LP  was  released. They  were  in  such  a  hurry  to  get  away   other  that  no  further  singles  were  taken  from  the  LP  and  this  album  became  one  of  the  decade's  forgotten  chart-toppers  despite  each  party's  subsequent  success. The  cover  art, chosen  by  Moyet,  of  two  Dalmatians  snarling  at  each  other  couldn't  be  more  apt  with  echoes  of  McCartney's  copulating  beetles  on  the  cover  of  Ram. If  Clarke  and  Moyet  had  been  a  romantic  as  well  as  musical  partnership  this  would  have  been  the  synth-pop  Rumours . As  it  is  only  one  song  directly  addresses  the  problem  but  there  are  hints  all  over  the  place  in  these  mostly  bleak  songs.

There  are  no  joint  credits  here, Moyet  having  six  songs  to  Clarke's  five  and  so  the  LP  is  bookended  by  Moyet  songs. First  up  is  the  single  "Nobody's  Diary"   with  Moyet  pleading  with  her  man  to  keep  the  relationship  going  and  using  every  wile on  him-  "Perhaps  if  I  held  you  I  could  win  again". Clarke's  inventive  arrangement  with  the  brittle  staccato  opening  giving  way  to  melodic  rushes  makes  it  hard  to  credit  they  mostly  avoided  going  into  the  studio  together.

Clarke's  "Softly  Over"   covers the  same  sort  of  emotional  territory  but  it's  bleaker ; the  lover  has  gone  and  isn't  there  to  hear  the  simple  "Understand  me "  plea. It's  based  on  a  simple , high  pitched  synth  motif  with  crashing  bass chords  at  the  start  of  each  verse  to  express  the  crushing  finality. The  middle  eight  introduces  O  Superman  vocal  loops  and  the  Gothic  synth  sound  from  Joy  Division's  Decades  for  emphasis.

But  it's  not  all  doom  and  gloom. On  Moyet's   "Sweet  Thing "  they  remember  that  they're  a  feted  dance  act  particularly  in  the  US  and  deliver  a  Hi-NRG  disco  romp. Moyet  is  again  being  deserted  but  brays  her  defiance  "It's  your  day  now  but  it's  gonna  be  mine ". Clarke  moves  things  along  with  little  slashes  of  synthetic  brass  but  the  track  goes  on  a  little  too  long.

Clarke's  wonderful  "Mr  Blue" follows ; there  are  distinct  echoes  of  "Only  You "  in  both  tune  and  arrangement  but  it's  a  great  song  in  its  own  right  and  reached  number  one  in  Holland  in  1993  when  covered  by  an  AIDS-ridden  singer. Clarke  imagines  himself  as  the  personification  of  melancholy,  an  inhabiting  spirit  like  Bob  from  Twin  Peaks  on  the  hunt  for  hosts  as  they  contemplate  the  onset  of  winter, famine  at  Christmas  time (in  a  wierdly  prescient  second  verse) , war (this  was a  year  after  the  Falklands  conflict)  and  yet  again. desertion. Moyet's  vocal  is  beautifully  controlled  resisting  the  temptation  to  embellish  when  presented  with  a  melody  that  doesn't  tax  her  too  much.

Side  One  closes  with  Moyet's  "Good  Times "  a  fiesty  song  which  follows  on  from  Green  Door  and  Neil  Sedaka's  Standing  On  The  Inside  as  the  expression  of  an  outsider's   wish  to  join  the  party. Moyet's  breathless  vocal  and  Clarke's  abrasive  synth-brass  riff work  together  to  suggest  she's  not  after  tea  and  cakes  when  she  gets  there. The  fat  girl  wants  sex  and  won't  be  denied   although  the  brutally honest  lyrics  "I'm  a  bargain  honey  I'm  a  give  away "  express  an  uncomfortable  truth.

Side  Two  starts  with  Clarke's  "Walk  Away  From  Love"  where  the  main  synth  riff  bears  a  distinct  resemblance  to  Just  Can't  Get  Enough  though  the  song  itself  is  far  less   brash. This  time  it's  Moyet  doing  the  deserting  though  in  the  chorus  she  sings  the  part  of  her  partner  pleading  for  her  to  stay. There's  a  Kylie  Minogue  Shocked  controversy  about  the  second  verse  where  she  may  sing  "run  to  a  place  where  you  can't  fuck  me " although  ""find  me" rhymes  with  the  previous  line. Perhaps  Clarke  is  trying  to  say  in  song  what  he  couldn't  in  face-to-face  conversation.

Moyet's  "Ode  To  Boy"  is  unabashedly  about  Clarke  and  her  dfficulty  in  understanding  what  made  him  tick. It's  the  slowest, bleakest  track  on  the  album  with  a  sparse  metallic  sound  which  focuses  attention  on  the  stark  lyric - I  watch  as  he  weeps  unaware that  I'm  in  awe  of  his  despair" . Clarke  closes  the  song  with  single  note  simulations  of  Oriental  percussion  reminiscent  of  Japan's  similarly  naked  Ghosts . Moyet  would record  an  acoustic version in  the  90s but  this  is  the  superior  take.

Clarke's  "Unmarked"  takes  us  away  from  personal  matters  for  a  post-Falklands  rail  at  militarism.  The  song  is  built  around  a  tortuous  deliberately  undanceable  rhythm  topped  off  with  pistol-crack  percussion  that  occasionally  breaks  into  a  military  tattoo. If  the  lyrics  are  rather  simplistic  Moyet  invests  them  with  enough  conviction  in  her  delivery  to  silence  the  cynics  and  Clarke himself  provides  the  wordless  lamentation  that  forms  the  chorus.

"Anyone"  sees  Moyet  retreating  to  her  room  for  the  sort  of  bedsit  introspection  with  which  Suzanne  Vega  would  shortly  be  making  a  killing. Reflecting  on  a  dismal  one-night  stand  she  retreats  to  her  imagination. Clarke  hovers  in  the  background  sympathetically  with  synthetic  triangle  and  marimba  sounds  before  returning  to  the  O  Superman  vocal  loops  for  an  eeerie  middle  eight.

Clarke  signs  off  with  "Happy  People"  which  he  also  sings, his  Everyman  voice  well-suited  to  a  barbed  lyric  about  mindless  hedonism. This  of  course  came  out  just  after  Margaret  Thatcher's  first  past  the  post  "landslide"  election  victory  in  June  1983. The  music  reflects  Clarke's   veiled  fist  approach  with  a  stabbing  riff  underneath  the  sugary  glockenspiel  melody  on  top. The  line  "Sometimes  we're  on  TV  when  we're  over  69"  may  be  a  reference  to  Thatcher's  soulmate  Reagan  which  might  explain  why  the  track  was  replaced  by  the single's  B-side  "State  Farm"   (very  similar  to  "Good  Times")  for  the  US  release.

The  final  track  "And  On"  from  Moyet  is  fittingly  enough  about  a  funeral. Ostensibly  Moyet  is  singing  about  not  being  able  to  grieve  for  a  young  friend  but  really  when  she  sings  "I'm  so  glad  that  your  life's  gone  now  before  it  had  the  chance  to  die "  it's  clear  that  she's  calling  time  on  the  project. Clarke  bangs  and  swoops  around  its  Vienna- like  rhythm  but  you  sense  it's  not  his  favourite  song  and  he  provides  no  coda. Almost  as  soon  as  Moyet  finishes  singing  the  word  "die"  they're  gone , a  brief  but  highly  rewarding  chapter  in  the  story  of  pop  coming  to  an  abrupt  end.

,

Thursday 9 September 2010

29 It's My Life - Talk Talk



Purchased : 5 March 1984



Tracks : Dum Dum Girl / Such A Shame / Renee / It's My Life / Tomorrow Started / The Last Time / Call In The Night Boy / Does Caroline Know / It's You




If you look back to the review of The Party's Over you'll realise why this was the most eagerly anticipated LP in my collection, bought in Leeds on the Saturday morning of the week it came out. They'd also made me wait for it releasing only a single in 1983. This was partly due to a personnel change ; as soon as the tour for the first LP ended they parted company with keyboard player Simon Brenner opting not to permanently replace him. They released a single "My Foolish Friend" in March 1983, ironically a Brenner co-write,. but it stiffed at 58 through lack of airplay (part of the video was actually filmed in Littleborough but I didn't find out about it until after the event). The lead-off single and title track fared a little better in January 1984 in terms of airplay and chart position but still fell short of the Top 40.





Inevitably perhaps I was a little disappointed by this one at the time and it took a while before I learned to love it. I missed Brenner's Gothic mellotron sound , thought the introduction of acoustic percussion was a concession to current pop trends and found Tim Friese-Greene's production a bit too squeaky-clean. I was also a bit disappointed by the lack of a lyric sheet, Mark Hollis not being the clearest enunciator in pop.



Phil Ramocon's piano chords lead straight into the mantra-like chorus of "Dum Dum Girl" the first of three songs co-written by Friese-Greene and it's presumably him responsible for the rather screechy keyboard sound that spoils this mournful song about prostitution.It establishes the new sound of the band, busy percussion from Morris Pert, upfront fretless bass from Paul Webb, a greater variety of keyboard sounds from Friese-Greene and Ian Curnow and a sparing use of guitar from new Pretender Robbie McIntosh and Mark Hollis himself. The chorus also makes good use of one of their secret weapons, Webb's backing vocals. It was the third single release from the LP limping to number 72.

"Such A Shame" was a big hit in mainland Europe reaching number one in Switzerland but as usual faltered over here peaking at 49. It's inspired by Luke Rheinhart's novel The Dice Man where the central character makes important decisions by tying alternatives to numbers on a dice. It begins ominously with a low drone over the percussion and elephant calls in the background and you wonder just what the stakes are. It's richly textured with Webb's probing bass the lead instrument and has a number of increasingly quiet false endings , a little prophecy of the sound of their final albums.

"Renee" is a long slow ballad of despair that returns to the themes of "Mirror Man" and "The Party's Over" from the first album. Renee is an abused and ageing woman observed by Hollis with an extraordinarily careful vocal. Beginning again with percussion , Pert is soon joined by a limpid guitar line from McIntosh and questioning bass from Webb. The drums only come in on the chorus and there's a sad trumpet from Henry Lowther in the middle eight that betrays Hollis's love of Miles Davis.

The first side concludes with the title track , finally a UK hit (their biggest ) on its third release in 1990 by which time they had ceased to operate as a conventional band. Eschewing the slow build up of the previous two tracks we're straight into the song here with Hollis seemingly the wronged party in a relationship but unable to break free. Unlike in The Animals song of the same name , the title is a cry of despair not affirmation backed by those glorious chords in the chorus that make the song so addictive.

Side Two begins with "Tomorrow Started" an impenetrable relationship song but whose despairing tone is all-pervasive from the slow torture of the dragging beat to Hollis's pain-wracked vocal particularly on the line "they never seem to be any use". The line "See my eyes, tell me I'm not lying" is copped from Split Enz's "I Got You" a dark song itself but nowhere near as hopeless as this one.

"The Last Time" is a Hollis co-write with keyboard player Ian Curnow which perhaps explains why there's a major key keyboard refrain for the first time on the LP but it soon gives way to a brooding verse , Webb's bass prowling with suppressed violence. Hollis is playing the victim card again ; when he cries "Bring on the clown" it's clear who he means.

"Call In The Night Boy" is the last song to be co-written by all four original members (and had appeared in a voice and piano only version on the B-side of "My Foolish Friend" ) . Here it's beefed up to become the nearest thing to a rock song the band ever recorded with Webb and Lee Harris combining to produce a pulsating rhythm and McIntosh punctuating proceedings with PiL -like distorted guitar. It's a surprise therefore when the middle eight gives Ramocon a chance to shine with a jazzy piano solo. The lyric can be interpreted two ways but given the aggression in the music I favour that Hollis is telling his girl to go and make her booty call to someone else.

"Does Caroline Know" is the one song I'm still not keen on. I don't like the cloying Beach Boys referene in the title or the sardonic screech of the keyboards. Webb also veers too close to Pino Palladino territory wobbling away for the sake of it. Lyrically Hollis shifts to a me culpa "breaking every pledge I've made" and with a different arrangement I'd love it.

"It's You" the closer is a powerful song again referencing the Beach Boys with the "God only knows " line. The verses bristle , Hollis's vocal quavering with indignation as he contemplates evidence of his girl's infidelity then the chorus explodes with self-deceiving anger as he decides it's all lies and accuses the messenger -"It's you". The Gothic keyboards in the middle eight hark back to the first album then we're left with Hollis endlessly repeating the chorus line "Why let lies about the girl bother you" in increasing desperation as the truth closes in.

I still don't put it on a par with "The Party's Over" but bands need to evolve and this one is pretty close to being a masterpiece itself.


Wednesday 8 September 2010

28 Construction Time Again - Depeche Mode

Purchased : 5th Jan 1984

Tracks : Love In Itself / More Than A Party / Pipeline / Everything Counts / Two Minute Warning / Shame / The Landscape Is Changing / Told You So / And Then / Evertyhing Counts (Reprise)

This was purchased from W H Smith's in Bradford on a rather aimless Day Rover excursion during the Christmas break.

This was Depeche Mode's third LP. Their second will eventually crop up here but I missed it at the time due to its short stay in the charts (and consequently the discount range) and my ambivalence about its third single. It was the the first album to feature Vince Clarke's replacement, Alan Wilder and the consequent broadening of their sonic palette is immediately obvious. While not a concept album as such , there's a thematic unity to the songs basically saying we're growing up and taking stock of the world around us.

And so the first song "Love In Itself" is almost an apology from Martin Gore for being preoccupied with love on his earlier compositions. It was the second single from the LP and not particularly successful peaking at 21. It's a sombre song, initially based around a nagging one-note synth motif with a synthetic brass riff on top but then changes tempo for verse and chorus and the middle eight introduces acoustic piano and guitar to their music for the first time. Wih no obvious hooks it wasn't destined for Top 10 success but it's an impressive statement of intent particularly the mournful synthesised trumpet coda at the end.

Then we're straight into "More Than A Party" with its swamp rock bassline. Gore's message that there's more to life than mindless hedonism isn't startlingly original but Dave Gahan as ever delivers it with great conviction. It doesn't go anywhere very interesting musically and the silly speeded -up ending almost acknowledges that.

Gore takes the lead vocal for "Pipeline" an earnest tale of working on a Third World immigration project. It starts off like Kate Bush's "The Dreaming" with a slow dragging beat but then introduces a Japan-like Oriental melody along with strange ping pong ball noises. The sound is filled further in the second verse by more synth lines and Gahan's backing vocals which continue into the closing mantra "Taking from the greedy giving to the needy".It's ambitious but quite successful.

Side One closes with "Everything Counts" one of their best-loved singles which mingles nursery rhyme synth melodies with hip hop rhythms. Gahan sings the verses and Gore the chorus which makes for an effective contrast and Gore provides an impressive melodica solo. For all that it's not a favourite of mine because the lyrics are so clunky; rhyming "career" with "Korea" is abysmal and makes their toytown critique of capitalism rather laughable.

Side Two begins with one of two Wilder compositions "Two Minute Warning" a rather vague anti-nuclear song with an interesting hoarse vocal from Gahan and twitchy New Order-ish synths. The second half of the song is instrumental allowing Wilder to build textures and employ a piston-like drum sound.

"Shame" returns to Gore's guilty conscience about world problems set to a clockwork rhythm and atonal blasts on a recorder. It's let down by the clumsy refrain "It all feels so stupid it makes me want to give up but why should I give up when it all seems so stupid" a piece of circular logic whose absurdity is only highlighted by Gahan's conviction.

Wilder's second contribution "The Landscape Is Changing" is an early eco-hymn set to a throbbing bassline with more synthetic brass lines. The chorus proves that the new boy was just as prone to nursery rhyme simplicity - "take good care of the world" as Gore. Again the instrumental fade is quite lengthy with an obvious debt to Kraftwerk.

The vaguely apocalyptic "Told You So" is the only track that harks back to the Clarke era with its driving dance beat and melodic synth riff. Again the lyrics are poor from the toe-curling reference to Jerusalem in the first line to the "higher/church spire" and "Suited/diluted" rhymes later on. It's a shame because the arrangement is excellent with synthetic clarinet on the middle eight and judicious use of Blue Monday choral synth to punctuate the chorus.

"And Then" might have been a better choice for the second single , a sort of I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing for the synth generation. Brooding verses with Gahan at his most plaintive lead in to an appealing group chorus with Pale Shelter acoustic guitar shimmers and glockenspiel melodies. The naive lyrics are charming rather than annoying.

The album closes with a brief reprise of "Everything Counts" which emphasises its nursery rhyme quality.

Like the New Order album earlier in 1983 this is really a work-in-progress towards their peak sound. Gore's lyrics would eventually improve but here they're a major weakness derailing the band's obvious wish to be taken more seriously. It's a decent album without obvious highs and lows but not essential listening.