Pauline Murray & The Invisible Girls: "Mr. X"

30 October 1980

"This is marvellous; a richly-produced synthesizer backcloth that gives words like "haunting" a new lease on life."

— Mark Ellen

So, the likes of the great Mark Ellen were weary of the same old punk nonsense three years on (those old reliable fossils The UK Subs have a new release in this issue!) but what of "new" wave and post-punk? If those noisy old one-chord wonders had become tired by 1980 what about all those gloomy five-piece groups with a deadpan vocalist, rumbling guitar and bass and admittedly quite wonderful drumming who cut records that all sounded the same? In such a bleak landscape, is it any wonder the New Pop revolution couldn't have come fast enough?

"Mr. X" was a single recorded by former punk Pauline Murray alongside supergroup adjacent The Invisible Girls (notably, an all-male outfit: I suppose those "girls" would not have been easy to spot). It bears many of the hallmarks of that familiar post-punk sound but has enough little tweaks that it is able to stand out. First, as Ellen suggests, there's Murray's voice: if not quite expressive then certainly not flat either, grounded and one that suggests that it's not far off from the way she speaks as well. With so few genuinely outstanding singers during this period, I am glad that Ellen is able to spot one.

A Manchester-area band that had previously backed the legendary cult figure John Cooper Clarke, The Invisible Girls was a sort of Warehouse city equivalent to Merseyside's Big in Japan with virtually everyone involved being of some importance musically. Factory Records producer Martin Hannett, keyboardist Steve Hopkins and guitarist Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column were the group's backbone and they were joined by Buzzcocks drummer John Maher on the album Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls. (Bernard Sumner and future Mission frontman Wayne Hussey also appear though not on "Mr. X") While the industrial grime of Joy Division is clearly an influence, there's enough musical diversity going on that it fails to end up conveniently slotted into a category.

Hannett's role is especially crucial. His production on Joy Division's groundbreaking albums Unknown Pleasures and Closer had been a key to the group's short-lived acclaim and success and it's why they remain such potent records to this day. Ian Curtis' suicide put all that to an abrupt end — for the moment anyway — but working with Murray gave him a greater opportunity to utilize synthesizers in his recordings, which would come in handy when the surviving members of Joy Division reconvened the following year as New Order. But this is no mere stepping stone: "Mr. X" has a surprisingly full sound and whoever had the idea to add bongos to the mix is to be commended.

Despite the high quality of the finished product, "Mr. X" failed to chart in a year that may not have been ready for it. Manchester in its post-punk boom period had a lot of time for genuinely charismatic lead singers (Ian Curtis, Howard Devoto, even Mark E. Smith in his own unique fashion) but it, and the country in general, may not have been quite as prepared for such a flamboyant song. A shift would gradually take place with a new generation of Mancunian vocalists who combined the stage presence of their forefathers with a new found pop audacity. Morrissey, Bernard Sumner, Ian Brown and Shaun Ryder would be at the centre of a movement that would make the city a musical flagship. I hope they thanked the singer from Newcastle, and not just the renowned group of musicians she'd been working with, for pushing them forward.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

The Attractions: "Arms Race"

"Arms Race", huh? Sounds like a track that had been left off of Armed Forces; did the Attractions "borrow" it from their boss Elvis Costello? Apparently not. Some of the selections this fortnight are the result of extracurricular projects with XTC's rhythm section masking as The Colonel on "Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen" and Blockhead veteran Chas Jankel with something called "Ai No Corrida" and this is also where Steve Nieve, Bruce Thomas and Pete Thomas fit in without their famous leader. As probably the best backing band in the business along with the E-Street Band, one would expect some distinguished playing but the apparent desire to distance themselves from their day job results in "Arms Race" being a triumph in production effects while not quite working as an overall tune. I wasn't aware that something so fresh and unusual could also be so forgettable. Nevertheless, they also happened to be at work on Trust, the superlative 1981 Costello album that would really give this group of musicians a chance to shine properly.

Nick Heyward: "Tell Me Why"

11 January 1989

"Nick's an older and more "careworn" soul these days and this song starts off all moody and Morrissey-like until, just when you least expect it, this glorious poetic and lovelorn chorus comes and grabs you by the lapels and gives you a good shaking."

— William Shaw

I was a young pop kid in early 1989 but the radio was seldom on. We would return from a weekend trip to, say, Norwich, Windsor or York and the "wireless" would be promptly switched on to catch the Top 40 Countdown with Bruno Brookes but, otherwise, I never gave much thought to listening to Radio 1 or Capitol Radio after coming home from school to accompany doing my geography homework. My sister and I spelled each other with the small tape player in the room we shared but, again, the radio was hardly ever on. In the car on the way to school or on those weekend trips it would play out much the same way: tapes would frequently be playing and no one gave much thought to turning on the radio. (This is odd looking back because we always had the radio on back in Canada)

Thus, I never got much exposure to pop music that wasn't on the charts — hey, if it isn't on the Top 40, how popular can it be anyway? — so the music of someone like Nick Heyward completely passed me by. It was left to Smash Hits to fill the void: they'd describe his records and I'd imagine how they'd sound. (I was just eleven at the time and still a long way off of trusting my luck by taking a punt on something unknown to me) Luckily, he had his champions at the top pop mag, even if he was being ignored elsewhere.

Alex Kadis already gave Heyward a Single of the Fortnight for comeback single "You're My World", describing it as "joyfully poppy and daffily jaunty as ever and it's shamelessly romantic and summery to "boot"!" She concludes her review by welcoming him back (as does William Shaw just over four months later: I'm surprised he was able to miss him since he hadn't been gone all that long). Richard Lowe isn't exactly bowled over by album I Love You Avenue but it is a "nice record" filled with "smashing" songs. I read and re-read that review and was convinced I was going to love it; I was so sure of it's brilliance that I didn't even have to hear it.

Just prior to the release of the album came "Tell Me Why", a second shot at the hit parade after "You're My World" missed out. This time, it's William Shaw's turn to heap some well-deserved praise on our Nick. As he says above, it opens on a unexpected downbeat note as he channels Morrissey in the verses. It might have been better had he held the chorus back a bit to really catch listeners off guard but that's a trivial knock against an otherwise astonishing single. At a time when the charts were exploding with techno, hip hop and indie rock, there wouldn't have been anything fresh at the prospect of a modestly sung sunshine pop song but who else was able to pull such a thing off back then? (Heyward's only real competition in that regard would have been the duo of Grant McLennan and Robert Forster of Australia's Go-Betweens and they were hardly conquering the charts either)

A common thread in the reviews of Kadis, Lowe and Shaw is how Heyward was once a pretty big deal when he was in Haircut One Hundred but things ended up going pear-shaped for him in his solo career. He had become a classic case of a faded pop star who couldn't escape from the shadow of his former band, or so we might assume. Luckily, his muse had remained and he seemed resigned to a life outside of chartdom. He was neither clinging desperately to former glories nor pathetically attempting to hop on the bandwagon of slick sophisti-pop production. Yes, his music had gone a little more indie and he wasn't unwilling to use synths but his M.O. remained and he's managed to stick with it to this day.

Still, it's easy for me to love it to death today when I have YouTube to feed me Heyward tunes from over thirty years ago. Back in the day this was a single that existed strictly in the pages of Smash Hits and I had to go on whatever I had read to provide me with some semblance of a pop song. It was around this time that I saw myself as a budding songwriter and attempting to picture how a tune would go based strictly on reviews proved a valuable exercise. (It also led me into a habit of coming up with titles before composing songs to go with them) I would wistfully sing the lines "tell me why" to myself in a style that wasn't a world away from his finished product but coming up with the rest proved much more challenging. We can't all be as talented as Nick Heyward.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Marc Almond featuring Gene Pitney: "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart"

Shaw isn't terribly impressed this, one of those cross-generational duets that were big in the late-eighties. Feeling it was a song that was "over-the-top" to begin with, he tuts at how the pair of Marc Almond and Gene Pitney have taken it to "hysterical extremes". I would've been in agreement with him at the time — actually, I was just bored by it — but now I'm in awe of this vocalist's masterclass. Almond really shouldn't be in the same league as Pitney but he holds his own and the pair sing in tandem beautifully. A surprise UK number one, it had a small part to play in the sixties revival going on in 1989 even if the pop kids still weren't quite ready for Burt Bachrach. Scintillating stuff.

Enya: "Evening Falls"

14 December 1988 (with more rantings from the lovely Ms. James here)

"I think she's the greatest female talent to come forward in 1988."

— Wendy James

The second to last issue of Smash Hits in 1988 (with the final not including a singles review page, as was typical) came out in the middle of December by which point the Christmas Number One had already been locked up. Favourites Bros had entered the charts at number two during the last week of November with the strategic double A-side "Cat Among the Pigeons" / "Silent Night" and this seemed to give them the early advantage over Cliff Richard's "Mistletoe and Wine" which only came in at seven. A week later and it was the wily old vet who showed the young stars how it was done, holding off Neighbours power couple Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan while Bros began sliding down the charts. Kylie and Jason's "Especially for You" had far more staying power than "Cat Among the Pigeons" but it was clear that "Mistletoe and Wine" wasn't going anywhere. It only remained to be seen if the Aussies could nab a week or two at the top once the seasonal goodwill was in the can (they managed to squeeze in three weeks at number one before the public got completely sick of it/them).

It is, therefore, odd to see further Christmas hit hopefuls up for consideration at this late stage in the game. The late Natalie Cole has a cover of a yuletide favourite that her father imortalized, "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)", which Wendy James gives faint praise. Elsewhere, in the unreviewed Also released between now and Christmas sidebar, is the then-obscure but now perennial "Driving Home for Christmas" by Chris Rea. And then there's James' choice for Single of the Fortnight which has a downhome, "In the Bleak Mid-Winter" seasonal air about it. These artists, their management and their record labels may have felt a late release might work to their advantage but the outlook would have been grim when it became clear that this would be the Christmas of Cliff. (This batch of "new" records is more that a little curious: two of the others reviewed here — Inner City's "Good Life" (see below) and New Order's "Fine Time" — were already in the UK Top 40 prior to this issue's publication)

There have been a fair few stinkers when it comes to guest critics of the singles in Smash Hits. Sigue Sigue Sputnik tried the bitchy-comedic angle but it very quickly grew tiresome. Samantha Fox has received some flack for her brainless turn (how dare she dislike The Fall and The Smiths!) but I'm less concerned with her taste in music than I am her horribly dull observations. Still, I'd take her review over Gary Numan's self-serving nonsense, even if he manages to be endearing at times. Wet Wet Wet and Hue & Cry sure seemed to enjoy riding on their high horses much more than evaluating the quality of the records. Bros, as I have already hammered home, made the entire thing all about themselves. With her penchant for mouthing off and fondness for skimpy clothing, Wendy James of rock combo Transvision Vamp was bound to be another one to add to the list of guest reviewers who make you wish that the magazine's staff would put down the mince pies, lay off the brandy and get on with evaluating the bloody records themselves.

The first thing to report is that James isn't interested in the spotlight here. Down for an accompanying photo session, she's wearing jeans, a feathery jumper and heels and is sporting an over-sized silk hat and holding a pair of 12" records (one of which is by Electribe 101, which she didn't review and isn't even in the aforementioned Also released section). Viewers can still catch a glimpse of her striking facial features but these aren't the sort of photos of her that prepubescent boys (myself included) would have been drooling over. She also keeps the personal shots at pop foes (both real and imagined) to a minimum with just a pot-calling-the-kettle-black swipe at Climie Fisher's videos ("[it] will probably have some beautiful models crawling all over them underneath a shower or something") taking her down the low road. Otherwise, she's keen to point out that she's "not a very dancy sort of person" (except for when she is) with the odd pointed observation ("It seems to me this band started out at The Miami Sound Machine, then it became Gloria Estefan And The Miami Sound Machine and pretty soon it'll probably just be Gloria Estefan").

One of the more surprising aspects of James' critique is her choice for SOTF. She came close to being more predictable by anointing The Pogues with their beat group homage "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah" but decided to go with Enya instead. Something closer to her punk/hard rock roots would've been what everyone would have expected only there's very little of that to choose from this fortnight. She had to make due with a record that she couldn't have made herself, which, all things considered, is a good way of choosing a favourite.

James' praise of Enya as the "greatest female talent to emerge in 1988" is no faint praise either. Female solo acts and girls fronting bands were all over the place that year. January saw Belinda Carlise top the British charts with "Heaven Is a Place on Earth" which was quickly followed by Kylie Minogue's "I Should Be So Lucky" and Tiffany's "I Think We're Alone Now" at the chart summit. Never before had three women been number one on the bounce. As if to emphasize this achievement, the feat was repeated that autumn, this time with Whitney Houston, Enya and Robin Beck scoring the treble. Four of these six number ones were recorded by superstars (Tiffany was a flash in the pan but she was huge for a time; Carlisle was ultimately unable to sustain her success in America but she became a chart regular in Europe from then on) while Beck's fluke smash was the result of a popular Coke commercial. Among this crowd, the Irish woman with the angelic voice who looked like she was into  healing with crystals really stood out.

"Orinoco Flow" had been a surprise number one but I spearheaded a backlash (one that didn't extend much past my front door and on the school playground) because she kept Kylie from the top spot. I didn't expect to enjoy "Evening Falls" but I really liked it and it now brings to mind the week before Christmas which we spent in Wales and Devon. Indeed, it might as well have been playing on a blustery Tuesday when we visited a beautiful but deserted wind-swept beach in Pembrokeshire or that evening as we walked along a very quiet part of Swansea Bay. We only spent a couple nights in Wales but the overall impression was of never seeing anyone and feeling like we were about to fall off the face of the Earth. (If I ever get the chance to visit the Falkland Islands, I'll be comparing the experience to my brief trip to Cymru) No wonder it could have been soundtracked by a sparse Gaelic tune of haunting loveliness.

It may have lacked the new age freshness of its predecessor but "Evening Falls" was and still is a beautiful creation. Still, it isn't exactly commercial and its chart potential was limited (I actually thought it charted lower than it did). Radio hardly ever played it and Top of the Pops and other music programmes gave it short shrift when they had been more than happy to promote "Orinoco Flow". As James suggests, it is much closer to the singer's background with her family's group Clannad. It is also a vehicle to better appreciate the purity of her voice, note perfect like fellow Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor and dreamy like All About Even's Julianne Regan. Closer to the real Enya.

"Evening Falls" disappeared quickly and would quickly be forgotten. Enya wouldn't have another Top 40 hit until two years later when "Caribbean Blue" was released. Meanwhile, Wendy James rose to the peak of her fame with "Baby I Don't Care" and Transvision Vamp's number one album Velveteen (a big favourite of mine when I was twelve). She then floundered trying to follow it up and her solo career didn't amount to much. But she has carried on and remains unapologetic. And why should she? She made the most of her modest talents, gave pop journalists plenty to write about and didn't try to unduly hog the spotlight — it was on her enough as it was.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Inner City: "Good Life"

So much for the influence of Smash Hits. "Big Fun" had been an unexpected Top 10 smash in September and October and "Good Life" was set to capitalize on their sudden British fame but reviewers didn't bother including them. Miranda Sawyer passed on them nearly a month earlier but it comes up here with James doing the singles. (Kind of makes you wonder how far in advance they got the singer to do the task) James likes the record but hates the sorts of places where it gets played but, speaking from my own experience at that time, you didn't have to be visiting the discotheques to be enjoying the "Good Life". Another top notch effort from the techno pair and a single many pop kids remain fond of into middle age. (The video shows a not-entirely camera shy Inner City vocalist Paris Grey taking in London. British kids of the time who had been raised on Michael Jackson, Madonna and Dallas must have found the sight of an American cavorting around the dour capital while praising the "Good Life" to be very strange indeed. And to think, the suits and Brit-pop types who created 'Cool Britannia' were just a glint in the double-glazing salesman's eyes)

XTC: "Towers of London"

16 October 1980

"Andy Partridge must be one the few rock songwriters who could get away with a single dedicated to Victorian city-building."

— Steve Taylor

What I previously said:

UK music critics at the time were crazy about Swindon's XTC — just as North American hacks were similarly gaga for them by the end of the eighties — as this second proto-SOTF in just six week indicates (perhaps it was also to make amends for spurning "Making Plans for Nigel" a year earlier). Spinning a yarn over London's growth and the poor, wretched individuals who built it, the song clangs of hammered iron, which hints at what they'd eventually do on their patchy '84 album The Big Express. Clearly XTC were on course to become a preeminent eighties band. What could possibly go wrong?

So, what exactly did go wrong?

Hints of troubles on the horizon were there as early as 1980. Fourth album Black Sea had only just been released to encouraging reviews. Ian Cranna considered it to be "magnificent", looked on in wonder at how they managed "to be so dazzlingly clever and thoroughly likeable at the same time" and concluded by proclaiming it to be a "compulsory purchase". And he's absolutely correct: if you catch me on the right day, it's my favourite XTC album (I have trouble choosing between it, Skylarking and Apple Venus). "Generals and Majors" had just returned them to the Top 40, albeit just barely. But cracks were already beginning to show.

The same issue of Smash Hits in which Cranna instructs all readers to immediately buy themselves a copy of Black Sea forthwith also includes a feature about XTC in the midst of a swank five year anniversary party for record label Virgin and the filming of a BBC2 special about the band. The fact that they were guests of honour at a such a do indicates the high hopes record company suits had for them. Yet the Swindon foursome are out of sorts in this caviar and champagne environment. Andy Partridge admits to still living in a small flat above in his hometown with his wife's connections allowing them to live rent free. The group was still in debt to Virgin and this is a situation that would remain for over a decade until they finally broke from the label. They were becoming a popular live attraction but their leader was already beginning to chafe at the stress of life on the road and this would come to a head a year and a half later when he permanently quit touring.

A lot would end up being squandered but what exactly were XTC going to lose by gradually alienating themselves from their record company and giving up the road? What didn't change was Partridge's muse which was never going to make a long-term impression on the masses. Black Sea is indeed as "commercial" as Cranna reckons but their leader's subject matter could steer towards the obscure at times. Closing track "Travels in Nihilon" is extraordinary but it would have baffled newcomers, "Paper and Iron (Notes and Coins)" is hectoring and "Towers of London" is about architects and the never-never navvies who built the centre of the British Empire.

Youngsters may not have been rushing to the high street Boots to pick up a copy but enough people bought "Towers of London" to give XTC their second Top 40 hit on the bounce, ending Partridge's dubious streak of chart failures (notably, from this point on, he would pen all four of their remaining hits as Colin Moulding ended up running dry). It wasn't a major success but it was a respectable performance. The misunderstood "Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)" took them back to the Top 20 so there was some momentum that they would promptly piss away. Nevertheless, "Towers of London" is a superlative single that builds into a singalong in spite of the lyrical content. They say that people like Marvin Gaye could sing the phone book but only Partridge could write a songbook based on the Farmer's Almanac. The commercial potential may have been limited but it was so worth having someone there to do so

A note on my quote from above. While I still agree with myself that "Towers of London" anticipates the Industrial Revolution rock of The Big Express, there is the difference of locale. Partridge putting his stamp on the British capital indicates that he still had an interest in worldly matters but this had vanished four years later when his perspective had narrowed all the way down to Swindon. Instead of mythologizing La-la-Londinium, he was happy to explore the Small Town he came from. And that's his call and good for him but, again, what exactly went wrong here?

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Yellow Magic Orchestra: "Nice Age"

Definitely this fortnight's runner up for best single. Yellow Magic Orchestra had an uncanny ability to nick from all over the place and still make themselves sound like no one else. Yeah, as Steve Taylor says, there's some Bowie and Sparks in there but this is too playful for Dame David and the Maels would have had to hammer home some irony. Again, not especially commercial which is a shame considering how irresistibly catchy it is. All hail groups like XTC and the Yellow Magic Orchestra because they were so far away from the tediousness of The Cars.

Erasure: Crackers International

30 November 1988

"They seem to be getting better and better, and this is no exception to the rule."

— Alex Kadis

Side 1: "Lady Madonna"; "Across the Universe"

Side 2: "The Inner Light"; "Hey Bulldog"

This is the track listing of what should have been the greatest EP of all time. The Beatles were getting ready for their meditation retreat in northern India but they were contractually obligated to release a single while they were away. George Harrison had already been in the subcontinent working on the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall and he produced a session with Indian musicians for his composition "The Inner Light". He took it back with him to London where he laid down his vocals at the encouragement of John Lennon and Paul McCartney who both liked the guitarist's latest work. As if spurred on by Harrison, his bandmates contributed some nice material as well. McCartney delivered "Lady Madonna" which would soon give the Fab Four yet another number one single while Lennon offered up both "Across the Universe" and "Hey Bulldog". Macca and Harrison's tracks would be used for their next single while Lennon's were held over for a charity album and the Yellow Submarine soundtrack respectively. None of the four are top flight songs but they're all very good and they would have become more than the sum of their parts had they been bundled together.

EPs exist in the grey area between singles and albums. If kept to three or four tracks (or even two in the case of Bjorn Again's Erasure-ish) they may qualify for the Top 40; if they go over their allotment, they become more like an album, especially if their running length goes past the twenty minute mark. (Even then, the lines aren't clear: I know of at least one R.E.M. fan who recognises Chronic Town, with just a quartet of tracks, to be an album; this blog will be looking at an extreme and oddball example next month) Effectively taking the place of the 10" record, EPs became a compromise between the brevity of the 7" single and the sheer length of the album. The Beatles dominated the EP charts every bit as much as they did the more renowned formats. Young people who couldn't afford to buy With The Beatles at least had the opportunity to invest in All My Loving which siphoned off four of its choice deep cuts. During their commercial peak they only issued one EP of original material and it was the mixed bag Long Tall Sally, which includes "Slow Down" and "Matchbox", probably the two worst covers they ever did. The EP chart died away towards the end of 1967 by which point The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour double EP was ready and was suddenly eligible for the singles chart (it got to no. 2 behind their own "Hello Goodbye").

Side 1: "Stop!"; "The Hardest Part"

Side 2: "Knocking on Your Door"; "She Won't Be Home"

EPs would eventually become a favourite format of punk groups and indie acts as a way of covering more ground than with a simple 7". Three or four tracks to choose from meant that there would be a better chance that someone's interest would be peaked by at least one of them and they were almost as cheap to make. The brilliant Spiral Scratch by Buzzcocks helped spur the revival of the EP and it wouldn't be long before rival punk and post-punk acts all over Britain were releasing their own.

A pop band signed to indie label Mute (where Vince Clark had remained since his days with both Depeche Mode and Yazoo), Erasure had a streak of the anti-commercial band about them and one who still retained a deep connection with their fans. 1988 had been a big year for them with a number one album The Innocents and three hit singles and they would soon win that year's Best Group award at the Brits. No one would've faulted them for choosing to release a fourth (especially considering Michael Jackson had just put out "Smooth Criminal", his seventh single from Bad — and he wasn't even done there!) but they admirably decided to try their luck with an EP of all new material. It's a wonder they didn't slap a giant 'OUR XMAS GIFT TO YOU!' sticker on the sleeve.

Unusually, Smash Hits had the lyrics for both "Stop!" and "Knocking on Your Door" printed in the same issue, as if thinking that both songs would be in competition with each other from both radio and TV. Didn't happen. My sister bought Crackers International (notably before we had anything to play it on, though it wouldn't be long before she acquired a record player from a friend) which would be my first chance to see a 7" record that looked like an LP. Each side had markings for the separate tracks! I only knew "Stop!" but there seemed to be so much more! While Crackers International was printed on the sleeve, effectively "Stop!" became the single and there didn't seem to be much point in the rest. (A similar scenario would unfold in the early part of 1989 when Simple Minds went to number one with their quasi-EP Ballad of the Streets though everyone knew it as "Belfast Child") While Erasure's loyal fanbase would have jumped for joy at an EP's worth of all new songs, the average listener only seemed to care about the one they kept hearing everywhere. (Pub jukeboxes, a recent obsession of mine, carried special editions that only featured "Stop" and what was its de facto b-side "Knocking on Your Door")

"Stop!" hogged the airplay and it subsequently appeared on various artist compliation and Erasure's handful of greatest hits compilations over the years. With a hard-hitting hi-NRG beat, Andy Bell's vocal histrionics and some nicely placed seasonal bells, it's easy to see why. Yet, listened to in the context of one of their best of's gives away that that it's repetitive and flimsy. The lyrics to "Ship of Fools" may have been nonsense but it remains a compelling song nonetheless. "A Little Respect" told the tale of being looked down upon in a relationship: well-trodden subject matter in song but one that Bell and Clark managed to keep fresh. But "Stop!" has a verse and a chorus and the two go back-and-forth from there — and their patented philosophical insights are nowhere to be found. It's just under three minutes long yet it somehow overstays its welcome.

It was only after a friend of my sister's let us have her portable record player for the remainder of our time in England that I got to hear "The Hardest Part", "Knocking on Your Door" and "She Won't Be Home". "Stop!" was all right but I didn't like it as much "A Little Respect" and I was hoping for some hidden treasures. "The Hardest Part" was my first exposure to one of those reflective Andy Bell numbers that take a lot of time to get used to: though I've since come round, I hated "Breath of Life" when I first heard it and I've never managed to warm to either "You Surround Me" or "Always" and it falls into this trajectory. (Bell frequently aspires to profundity but only sometimes pulls it off) I convinced myself that "Knocking on Your Door" was the true single but it lacks the immediacy of their classic singles so I guess there's a reason no one bothered with it. "She Won't Be Home" was a belated attempt to make it more of a Christmas project but I can't help but feel that there's a reason it's hiding away there on the second side's last track. Even so, the four tracks do hang rather well together in much the same way that the Lady Madonna EP does: it just isn't anywhere near as good.

Nevertheless, Crackers International felt like a monumental single that December. The Christmas Number One race was about to come down to Bros, Kylie & Jason and Cliff Richard and Erasure represented the alternative to all that yuletide schlock. Pet Shop Boys had already had their moment of stealing the Xmas thunder a year previously and now it was Bell and Clark's turn. They stood for all those quality records that were all destined to come up short: Neneh Cherry's "Buffalo Stance", Inner City's "Good Life", New Order's "Fine Time". One of those may have been your favourite but why not get behind the one hope of a decent Christmas Number One that's not going to make the pop kids with good taste in music hurl? These aren't any of the best tracks Erasure has ever done but they're all new and there are four of them! Four! Sometimes quantity manages to trump quality.

Crackers International became a huge hit, falling just short of the top spot in the early part of 1989. The cover art and the last track that no one listened to aside, there wasn't much of a connection with Christmas so it continued to sell strongly past the New Year. Ultimately, it signaled where they'd be heading with their next album Wild!, a much more serious and somber collection of songs that what was on The Innocents (even though you'd think it would have been the other way around given their titles). Singles like "Drama" and "Blue Savannah" did well but the duo strove a bit too hard to create a masterpiece and ended up with something uncharacteristically boring instead. Luckily, their grasp of great pop would quickly return in 1991, which they would in turn follow-up with another EP which would be even more mediocre than Crackers but one that managed to be widely popular and strangely influential.

Side 1: "A Century of Fakers"; "Le pastie de la bourgeoisie"

Side 2: "Beautiful"; "Put the Book Back on the Shelf/Songs for Children"

Okay, 3.. 6.. 9 Seconds of Light didn't have sides because it's from the heyday of the CD era (though I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it reissued on "vinyl" for Record Store Day or some other attempt at pathetically trying to prop up the music industry) but it follows along the same lines as Lady Madonna and Crackers International. Only (a) it's real and (b) it's truly outstanding. Groups like Belle & Sebastian gave a new life to the EP because they made the format a priority. They didn't cynically plop a single in disguise on their extended plays, nor did they time their releases strategically for Christmas. They selected tunes that were of the highest caliber, not leftovers from their most recent album. The tracks are diverse and wonderful. The Beatles never contemplated such a work and Erasure didn't have it in them so good on Belle & Sebastian for offering up the greatest EP of all time.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

U2: "Angel of Harlem"

Alex Kadis isn't terribly impressed with ver 2's second single from Rattle & Hum, feeling that they're trying to sound far too American. This is a valid complaint of their stuff in general from this time but I'm not sure "Angel of Harlem" is especially guilty of over-cultural appropriation. In fact, one of its chief virtues is how it doesn't understand Americana. Meant as a tribute to legendary jazz vocalist Billie Holiday with references to Charlie Parker ("Birdland"), Miles Davis and John Coltrane (none of whom ever worked with Lady Day), we are not greeted to the sound of U2 doing old school swing or improvisation; instead, they decided to recreate sixties' soul because...black people? Problematic? Possibly but Bono, The Hedge and the other two get away with it because they're not in over their heads trying to re-do Stax records. As with much of Rattle & Hum, this is a tribute that says much more about them than the legends they supposedly revere but if they're doing something as wonderful as this, who am I to complain? As many have remarked, it's the closest thing to a Christmas song they ever did and it's surprising it didn't do better.

Pet Shop Boys: "Left to My Own Devices"

16 November 1988

"According to this record, a day in the life of a typical Pet Shop Boy consists of getting up at half-past ten and going shopping, but somehow this single twists such everyday normalities into something distinctly threatening."

— Miranda Sawyer

The Christmas Number One sweepstakes of 1988 were heating up after a slow start a fortnight earlier. Bros, the hottest British act of the year, made their bid with the double A-side "Cat Among the Pigeons" / "Silent Night", a mix of yet another cut from their album Push and a seasonal favourite that might get more than the hardcore Brosettes to shell out. Rick Astley, the bookies choice a year earlier, was back with the SAW composition "Take Me to Your Heart". Michael Jackson was really starting to scrape the bottom of the Bad barrel with "Smooth Criminal". Kim Wilde taking the blubsome, heartbroken waif angle with "Four Letter Word". Phil Collins going all Motown on "Two Hearts". A-ha with yet another standard A-ha record "You Are the One". Ver kids were spoiled for choice when it came to buying presents for their brothers and sisters — and, indeed, for spending their prized Christmas record tokens from their uncles and aunties.

Also present is the Pet Shop Boys, who were the upset winners a year earlier. I don't know if them taking the best ever version of "Always on My Mind" to the top was a huge upset but Rick had been the one expecting it and a whole generation of pop kids are salty to this day that The Pogues didn't manage to pull it off so it seems at least a few people were upset by it. In any event, "Always on My Mind" proved to be one of the strongest non-festive Christmas number ones of all time and is frequently cited as the among the greatest cover versions ever recorded. It proved to be the apogee of their imperial period with a video that teased their upcoming film It Couldn't Happen Here with momentum aplenty to take the perfectly acceptable but still kind of underwhelming follow-up "Heart" to its own trip up to the top of the charts.

Their chances didn't seem quite as good the following year as they aimed to be the first group since The Beatles (back when it wasn't even a big deal) to nab back-to-back Christmas chart toppers. The following issue of Smash Hits did a feature in Bitz about the potential winners and they didn't like the chances of "Left to My Own Devices". They were "in poor form this festive season" and that "grannies won't have a clue what they're on about". In short, they were no longer content to make music that could appeal to as many people as possible; Tennant was beginning to write in a much more autobiographical fashion and Lowe was drawing upon house music for inspiration. Mass popularity had arrived and now it was time to guide the listeners and viewers to some new places.

"Left to My Own Devices" wasn't the biggest single that Christmas but it was the best tune on the charts. "Heart" had been an enjoyable let down but it led them towards their most creatively fertile period. Just being a standard synth-pop duo was no longer good enough. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe began approaching their albums thematically but Introspective arrived at a time when they could sacrifice LP cohesion in favour of an ambitious plan to record every track long. Other groups cut singles that would be extended for the 12" mix but they were interested in doing the reverse. "The idea," Tennant would later explain, "was to have an album where every track was a single". (Indeed, a companion EP could easily be compiled of the four singles from Introspective, as well as Eighth Wonder's cover of "I'm Not Scared" and the original b-side release of "I Want a Dog": suffice it to say it would be vastly inferior to the album itself) Introspective was met with mixed reviews (William Shaw thought they were guilty of "messing about a bit too much", while my mum was furious that there were only six songs on it) but it is now regarded as one of their finest works and the start of their creative peak.

Written in piecemeal fashion by Tennant and Lowe and with perfectionists Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson producing, "Left to My Own Devices" took its time gestating before a proper song resulted. This could easily have turned the work into a mess but all concerned were on the same page in crafting their grandest number to date. It would be the first song they'd record with an orchestra and the video would be their first in ages to lack a narrative. But for all the new elements involved, it is classic Pet Shops. Tennant proved again that he's better at spoken word than singing (the trio of "West End Girls", "Left to My Own Devices" and "Being Boring" are all either rapped, narrated or whispered; it would only be until "Yesterday When I Was Mad" that he may have taken talking over their records a step too far) and their streak of pristine singles was in no danger of coming to a close. The only thing missing was that the eight minute album version was just that much more epic and over-the-top.

"Left to My Own Devices" peaked at a routine number four but it was out of the Top 20 by the time Bruno Brookes announced that year's Christmas number one. They would never be as popular as they had been in 1987 but their devoted fanbase remained and they happened to be at the peak of their powers. Loneliness, isolation, making a virtue out of not fitting it, dark humour: those of us who remained committed were set to learn a lot from them. Meanwhile, other pop stars would be factoring into the 1988 Christmas number one stakes including a certain synth-pop duo who were the chief rivals to the Pet Shop Boys.

The singles were reviewed this fortnight by Miranda Sawyer, another one of my favourite writers from the year I was a Hits devotee. In common with both Sylvia Patterson and Tom Doyle, she had the perspective of being a similarly obsessive fan of the magazine prior to working for it and it shows in much of her writing. Pop kids of the time could live out their fantasies of being pop stars, meeting pop stars, snogging pop stars, bashing pop stars and taking the mickey out of pop stars and this generation of hacks had that same mindset about them. The days of older, more serious critics lampooning Duran Duran were long gone and in their place were these young writers who loved pop and making fun of it as much as possible.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Neneh Cherry: "Buffalo Stance"

Not a favourite for the Christmas Number One, "Buffalo Stance" proved to be a slow burn up the charts and it didn't peak until the New Year by which point the Swedish singer/rapper and step-daughter of jazz trumpet player Don Cherry had made a name for herself with a legendary performance on Top of the Pops. The kids didn't know what a "Buffalo Stance" was nor were we clued in to the fact that the song seemed to be about prostitutes. The only stuff that mattered was that (a) it was a brilliant pop song and (b) Cherry was an awesome pop star. We'll be seeing her here again before long.

Earth, Wind & Fire: "Let Me Talk"

2 October 1980

"It's funny how, in a bad singles week, it's only the disco records that stand between your reviewer and advanced depression."

— David Hepworth

Homophobia and racism. The backlash towards disco didn't boil down to much more than that. Peaking at the notorious Disco Demolition Night on July 12, 1979 at Chicago's Comiskey Park, it has since been well-established that the genre didn't immediately die away, even if it signaled the moment in which it began its decline. Chic, Donna Summer and others kept going while the Bee Gees moved on but the glory days were done. Dance music moved back into the clubs where it would stay for much of the next five years when it would reemerge to a more accepting climate.

So, disco was fading but what would take its place? Something that the rockers never addressed in their opposition to it was that their type of music was a big part of the problem. Punk had been (and still is) celebrated for tearing down the cliches of stadium rock nonsense and prog pomposity but it only helped create newer and more stultifying trends in guitar-based music. Beyond a handful of talented figures leading the way, new wave was full of the same chords, the same drum patterns and that same type of singing in which spit would spew — and those records all sound like they were cut in the same studio with the same production crew. Power pop just went on being that nice and safe (and predictable; you will never be able to convince me that such boring material ought to be labelled 'Beatle-esque') sub-genre that continues to captivate everyone who isn't me. And the people who didn't move away from punk suddenly became the real dinosaurs.

David Hepworth is a rock 'n' roll fan born in 1950. He loves his Beatles and Stones, will happily inform anyone within earshot that the music of his youth is best and, as such, is from a generation in which he could easily have had nothing but contempt for disco. Yet, here he is, a thirty-year-old critic, bored out of his mind by rock while seemingly embracing that dance stuff that had supposedly been snuffed out a year earlier at a baseball game.

The Earth, Wind & Fire track, "Let Me Talk", isn't the first thing I'd choose to put on. It feels busy and while I will frequently knock the saminess of punk and new wave vocals, there's something about the way Philip Bailey sings as if he's shouting through a megaphone that grates. This may have worked back when it was Curtis Mayfield or Sly Stone but Earth, Wind & Fire weren't exactly protest singers nor is it easy to imagine them playing a set at Woodstock a decade earlier. The arrangements are cluttered too, though the sudden shift at 1:37 is inspired. I don't know, it's fine but they were capable of better. Hepworth can't get enough of the musicianship ("there isn't a manjack in the band who isn't hopelessly in love with the sound his instrument makes"), which is its best quality, but I have to wonder if it marks a point where funk playing was getting out of the reach of its roots on the streets. Is it any wonder hip hop was just beginning to establish itself.

On the other hand, above average funk-disco is still preferable to virtually everything else here. Even Donna Summer's "The Wanderer" ("it stands out like a beacon purely because it's got a little bottle and buckets of style") isn't up to much though, I would acknowledge that it isn't due to it being stale. That's more than can be said for Suzi Quatro, The Damned and Gillan, among others. Dance music was returning to the underground and that's also where you'd find the bulk of the guitar rock that was of much interest.

1980 was a fantastic year for music. ABBA, Blondie, The Jam and The Police were all in full imperial mode. New Pop began exploding in the UK with Adam Ant, Dexys Midnight Runners and Madness (only to be followed a year later by many, many more) while young American acts like Prince were also on the rise. And, yet, like punk had just three years earlier, all this goodness wasn't able to sweep the detritus out of the way. Lousy music from tired genres always remains, it's just up to the talented acts and fresh new sounds to overcome it all.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Modern Romance: "Modern Romance"

Formerly known as Leyton Buzzards, Modern Romance were in the process to mercifully ditching new wave in favour of stylish pop with exotic rhythms. I'm sure dullards complained that they had 'sold out' but there was always a touch of the palm tree-grass skirt-mai tai about them even in their earlier incarnation. Yet, it's fascinating to hear them in the process of moving away from one genre and on to another. Geoff Dean needs to tone down the Suggs/Ian Dury thing going on and the group really ought to try something a little bolder to forge a separate identity from ver Buzzards but they were ironing these kinks out. A year on and they'd be imploring the nation to "Salsa" and soon they'd have a whole new set of sins to answer for. Such is the way of progress in pop.