Habit: "Get Back" / Scritti Politti featuring Roger Troutman: "Boom! There She Was"

2 November 1988

Welcome to yet another in an on-and-off series of pop groups reviewing the singles in Smash Hits and failing to agree on a favourite. We previously saw both The Communards, who did well in the task and picked a pair of absolute bangers, and Bros, who made the whole thing about themselves and picked perhaps the two most boring records on offer. For all the differences in quality between the two, there was a commendable effort on the part of both groups to go for records with some stylistic differences — and not just from each other but even from the groups themselves. Richard Coles and Jimmy Somerville didn't opt for hi-NRG synth-pop and Matt, Luke and Ken didn't choose perpetually cranky and entitled boy bands. This time things are somewhat different. The members of Brother Beyond end up dividing into two camps on the Single of the Fortnight but both records share more than a little in common with each — and, indeed, neither of them is a million miles away from what the 'Yond aspired towards. Whether they were able to achieve the "heights" of either a fellow up-and-coming pop group tipped for big things or an eighties' stalwart that was beginning to slow down is another matter altogether.

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"I'd really like to see them have a hit."

— Nathan

"Can I hear the B-side?"

— David

"I wish he wouldn't write lyrics like he's swallowed a whole dictionary though."

— Carl

"This is my sort of happening drum groove."

— Steve

It was November of 1988 and the UK was getting cooler after a fairly mild October. Snow was almost nowhere to be seen (though I did wake up one Saturday morning to a very brief flurry that had passed before I was able to get myself together enough to go out in it) but a dense, bone-chilling cold I had never experienced in back in Canada began to settle in. Our place had no central heating, hot water wasn't limitless and the space heater in the living room wasn't even adequate for drying our clothes. School, too, was freezing, with portable classrooms for both English and Science being especially frigid. It was at this time that PE class went from the cool enough indoor swimming pool to the frosted-over rugby pitch. A rugger scrum was not my idea of larks in gym class but at least the combined body heat of two dozen first years provided some warmth. My family took overnight weekend trips to both York (still one of my favourite cities in Britain) and Norwich (nothing to do though I would eventually "warm" to it) which were both somehow even colder than Essex. All this discomfort but at least it got me thinking about Christmas early — and I wasn't alone.

The race for the Christmas Number One was already getting going nearly two months early. This fortnight's new singles aren't exactly stacked and it wouldn't be until later in the month that some real contenders would emerge but there are signs of a preemptive push nonetheless. Annie Lennox and Al Green's "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" is here albeit without mention of it being from the (overrated) Christmas movie Scrooged ("Sounds a bit seasonal, y'know?" points out a perceptive 'Yond drummer Steve Alexander). So, too, are chart topping singers from earlier in the year Glenn Medeiros and Tiffany, both with brand new material. Salt-N-Pepa go the double A-side route with a fun version of "Twist and Shout" to put them in a better position chart-wise than its disappointing predecessor "Shake Your Thang (It's Your Thing)" (though, oddly, the 'Yond only discuss the single's flip side "Everybody Get Up", a tune I have no recollection of). And then there's the slushy bar-band power ballad below.

These would all be Christmas Number One longshots but at least one can imagine record label execs thinking otherwise. Elsewhere, we have the true also-rans. Groups like Habit and Perfect Day were highly regarded by the pop press at the time but neither had anything distinctive about them which did them no favours at this time of the year. On the other hand, Black and Scritti Politti were both sliding down the dumper and more of the same wasn't going to rescue them. 

That said, Green's "Boom! There She Was" is easily the best single going this fortnight. No, it isn't close to the Scritti of old but even when they were treading water they were still way ahead of the pack doing pop-soul. The hallmarks of their mid-eighties' switch to a much more radio-friendly sound are still there, even if they're a little less inspired than the likes of "Wood Beez" or "Absolute". Crafted by a Habit or a Perfect Day — or, indeed, a 'Yond — and "Boom!" would've been astonishing; done by Green and co. and it's a case of "oh, another brilliant, understated Scritti Politti record, so what else is new?"

And, yet, the 'Yond's keyboardist and main songwriter (when they weren't relying on Stock Aitken Waterman, that is) Carl Fysh longs for Green to write lyrics that aren't as if he "swallowed a whole dictionary". You know what else would be nice? Joy Division songs that aren't so damn depressing, Queen songs that aren't so over-the-top and Ramones songs that aren't such a bloody racket.  Green was — and probably still is — a master of complex wordplay and deconstructionism in his recordings while masking all of it in gooey arrangements and it's possible to love the songs without getting too far into the weeds of post-modern French philosophy. Fysh being a songwriter himself, it's curious that he would nevertheless point out Green's wordiness as a flaw. After all, as Brian Eno once said, only 10,000 people bought those early Scritti Politti EPs but everyone who did formed a band and began quoting Derrida. And despite some charitable things I've said before about Brother Beyond, it's a shame they wanted Green to descend to their level rather than them aspiring to rise to his.

If Green's not-so-hidden depths annoyed Fysh so much he should've followed bandmates Nathan Moore and David White on the Habit bandwagon where there would no intellectual pretenses. More on the dancier side of sophisti-pop, they emerged onto a crowded scene that already had the likes of Matt Bianco and The Blow Monkeys and they struggled to stand out. They had their champions (Tom Doyle gave their single "Lucy" an encouraging review earlier in the year and added that "rumour has it they have lots of better songs too..." Uh, no) but no amount of radio play, TV spots and Singles of the Fortnight could hide just how inessential they were. You might well have liked "Get Back" but no one needed to own it and kids weren't rushing to their VCRs to record them playing on Going Live (assuming they did).

Back to Scritti Politti, "Boom! There She Was" gave them a second chart flop on the bounce when they deserved at least a nominal Top 40 spot. Yet, there was no escaping that they weren't as good as they had been three or fours years earlier. Perhaps sensing that changes were in order, Green began drafting in guests for one off spots. Famously, Miles Davis appeared on the Top 20 hit "Oh Patti" and this time it's talk box master Roger Troutman who got the call. Nothing against the man but it's not a particularly noticeable performance with his robotic voice relegated to the background as if mocking Green's falsetto. Still, he got a "featuring" credit and this marks a turning point for Scritti Politti in which they went from being a group to a solo act with a revolving door of guests. This in turn wasn't ever remarked on because of the less-than-productive decade ahead for Green. He will reappear on this blog at least one more time (and with something that Carl Fysh would have doubtless approved of) but if you thought that three albums in the eighties was a slothsome workrate, just wait till you see how he fared in the decade that rediscovered earnestness: he would be missed.

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Also Released This Fortnight

Angry Anderson: "Suddenly"

"It's topical though", a once again helpful Steve Alexander notes, "because I saw Scott propose to Charlene the other day". First, good on the 'Yond's drummer for not pretending that he didn't watch Neighbours. Second, I don't remember this rotten song soundtracking the moment that Scott Robinson got down on one knee and popped the question to Charlene Mitchell, who was doubtless dressed in overalls at the time. Timely and them some because it would be more well-remembered for being the theme to their wedding later in the month. There are lots of sickly "ballads" that I can happily listen to but this is not one of them unless it's for nostalgic purposes. Glenn Medeiros never recorded anything so vile. Habit deserved better, didn't they?