— Andy Taylor
Cor! A special edition of VER HITS!
You've probably noticed that this entry is early. Yes! I've flouted my once-a-week rules and have provided an extra review for your reading pleasure. Except this one isn't from the pages of Smash Hits magazine. Instead, we have the first in an occasional series of pieces about singles reviewed in rival and/or related publications. First up is Record Mirror, once a sturdy tabloid inky that battled it out with Melody Maker and New Music Express but which had recently gone the glossy pop mag route to compete with ver Hits. A special thanks to Michael Kane's fantastic Flickr archive for posting this issue. I highly recommend you visit this page, it makes for a nice companion to Brian McCloskey's indispensable Smash Hits site.
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Smash Hits scooped up John Taylor to guest review the singles just a few weeks earlier and, not to be outdone, here is Record Mirror drafting in Andy Taylor to give his thoughts on the new releases. (Rest assured, I already checked to see if Roger Taylor got snapped up by Number One to do the deed around this time but, alas, he must have passed on the opportunity; perhaps he was busy looking at farms to purchase and prematurely retire to) Both had their hearts in harder rock than the poncy art school stuff that Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes were interested in but you'd hardly notice it here with their respective picks. John opted for the slick 'n' smooth sounds of the Kane Gang while Andy made a case for the sensitive jazz-pop of Everything but the Girl - and over a reissue of a Stones classic (his 'almost single of the week') to boot. Hardly the choice cuts of macho axe men.
Andy Taylor was beginning to give the pop stardom of Duran Duran a rethink so perhaps the understated crispness of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt proved to be a welcome pallet cleanser: it wasn't necessarily the sort of music he'd play on but did stand in stark contrast to the artifice being dished up by of the biggest group in the world. As his nibs points out, "it's good for people to get into that level of musicianship and also make it commercial at the same time. It's getting away from quick, cheap and nasty." It's hard not to think he has the band he would soon leave in mind as being quick, cheap and nasty (he'd hardly be alone). (Though I feel at pains to point out that The Power Station may not have been quite the direction to have gone in had they been looking for some credibility. Blimey, this is now the second time I've used TPS as a way of taking a shot at a Taylor; I hope I don't blow my load before we get to them early next year)
So, just what made Everything but the Girl, er, slow, expensive and agreeable? Most obviously there's Tracey Thorn, who must be the most resigned vocalist in pop. Post-punk female vocalists in Britain tended towards a nihilistic, lifeless style of singing and some pulled it off but Thorn managed a sullen realism that could also be beautifully expressive. A line like "I'm okay and I don't need his name, thank you / mine fits me nicely, mine will do" probably ought to be delivered by someone with a flippant confidence like Kim Deal but it's all the more poignant conveyed by sheer sorrow. There's no melodrama, however, as Thorn keeps it tight and too the point.
EBTG's other strength here is just what a staggeringly talented pair Thorn and Ben Watt were. I've written before in praise of their respective solo works but the two functioned even more effectively in tandem. Playing with precision and restraint, they conjure up a mood that glides over the listener. Watt's guitar solo is brief but compliments Thorn's performance perfectly and so, too, does a gentle bit of vibes from British jazz musician Bill Le Sage. The playing in general is impeccable with the unlikely team up of jazz veterans and post punkers working magic together. I'm not sure whether they happened to be sitting their exams at the time, as Taylor maybe a bit snarkingly alludes to above, but it's hard to say if something so superb really had much chart potential. Quick, cheap and nasty may have made his skin crawl but it's always been a proven winner for reaching the top forty.
Record Mirror was very much on the serious end of the pop magazine spectrum and this was a reputation that would be difficult to shake in spite of some cutesy gimmicks they would soon start to rely on. While it's difficult to imagine holdover readers from an earlier era remaining loyal, it's also hard to picture many young people, used to the nonsensical joy of Smash Hits, getting sucked into this world of serious and less sparkly pop journalism. A less sparkly member of Duran Duran, Andy Taylor turned out to be the perfect guest reviewer for them — and, indeed, Everything but the Girl's "Mine" proved an appropriate staff pick. Too bad ver kids weren't having it.
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Also Reviewed This Week
John Lennon: "I'm Stepping Out"
"I'm Only Sleeping", "A Day in the Life", "Good Morning Good Morning", "#9 Dream", "Watching the Wheels": yes, John Lennon enjoyed loafing and daydreaming and leafing through a newspaper with the telly on and pop records playing and (probably) a ham radio on all at the same time but at least he wrote plenty of songs about his slothful ways. (The typically contrary bugger that he was, the first chance he had to rest and relax, during The Beatles' meditation sojourn in India, he began feeling restless, which he was good enough to document in song with "I'm So Tired") A nice change, then, to see him getting ready for a night on the town in NYC — except it isn't anything of the sort. Lennon may indeed be stepping out but it's hard to believe he has much enthusiasm for doing so. The second verse gives away the game by admitting that "if it don't feel right, you don't have to do it", while in the third he basically lists off all stuff he normally does — "baby's sleeping, the cats have all been fed / Ain't nothing doing on TV (summer repeats)" — as to delay having to leave the apartment. Lennon was far more sociable in his later years than some would have you believe but he was at heart a homebody. The record isn't bad but, as with much of his work from the end of his life, it's of more value for what it tells us about Lennon's state of mind at the time.
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