Neneh Cherry: "Inna City Mama"

13 December 1989

"Dark, brooding, funky and utterly fabulous re-mix from her "Raw Like Sushi" LP in which Neneh smoulders through a tragic tale of inner city blues and "mamas"."

— Lola Borg

And so the eighties come to a close.

It's appropriate that the final Single of the Fortnight of the decade would be by an individual who had been one of the most arresting acts of the year and looked set to be the future of pop music in the nineties. The final issue of Smash Hits of '89 even featured a prominent photo of a smiling Neneh Cherry alongside pics of Jason Donovan, Bros, Soul II Soul's Jazzie B, New Kids on the Block and Axel Rose of Guns 'N Roses. It's a round-up of the past year but clearly these were people to keep an eye on for the next twelve months — and, indeed, well into the future. Suffice it to say the nineties didn't belong to any of them.

Neneh Cherry's four British singles from Raw Like Sushi all represented something different. "Buffalo Stance" grabbed people's attention, "Manchild" convinced any remaining doubters as to her artistic cred, "Kisses on the Wind" proved she could do late-eighties' pop with the best of 'em and, finally, "Inna City Mama" was meant to to place her in a much more serious context.

Being in North America, however, this narrative didn't apply. "Manchild" had been just a deep cut on the other side of the Atlantic as it got passed over in favour of the more radio-friendly "Kisses" and "Inna City Mama" was similarly ignored, this time to the so-so "Heart", another pop number that didn't do much. She may have still been the future of pop in Europe but her standing across the water was already in decline.

The title is a clear nod to "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", the outstanding closing track from Marvin Gaye's influential 1971 album What's Going On. The version on Raw Like Sushi opens with the same "New York, just like I pictured it..." bit from Stevie Wonder's "Living for the City" from his equally important album Innervisions. This suggests she'd been exploring vintage Motown at the time but any further influence isn't apparent. Rather than aping a pair of soul music legends, perhaps she was simply trying to place herself in the same rarefied air.

Remixes as a justification for a fourth, fifth and even sixth single from an album was becoming all-too common at around this time. Often the changes made would be subtle, a gentle sprucing up of the sound in order to stem the tide of the law of decreasing returns. I'm sure there's some of that spirit here but this is far more than your standard producer adding and/or removing samples or putting greater emphasis on the bass part. For one thing, Cherry seems to have given her vocal a complete redo. Her aggressive reading on the album version is replaced with a more restrained performance on the single. There's also less of the pretense of trying to do something hardcore. The verses and chorus are fairly laid back and it is only at the rap in the bridge where she shows some intensity. (The remix does a poor job transitioning from the two parts which is its only big drawback compared to the album version) 

The remix/re-record of "Inna City Mama" proved to be mostly effective but it failed to stem the downward trajectory of her singles and it only managed to limp into the lower reaches of the Top 40 (and this was during the annual January chart lull). Cherry would return to the hit parade later in 1990 with a strong cover of the Cole Porter classic "I've Got You Under My Skin" from the Red Hot + Blue charity album. She would continue to enjoy success but she would never again be the figure she had been for much of 1989. Nineties wouldn't end up belonging to Neneh Cherry but I'm sure she was fine with not achieving what she never set out to accomplish.

~~~~~

Also of some cop

Electronic: "Getting Away with It"

Lola Borg mentions the blight of seventies' rock 'n' roll supergroups and draws a direct line to this mash-up of New Order, Pet Shop Boys and The Smiths that was Electronic. I'd like to say she's wrong to be disappointed but I can't. Yes, it does sound like a "mardy New Order LP track" and it doesn't approach the best work of Johnny Marr, Bernard Sumner and Neil Tennant. It does, however, point to New Order's eventual pop direction nearly four years later as well as the Pet Shops' gradual acceptance of the guitar as an instrument to not necessarily avoid like the plague in their recordings. Again, they'd put them to better use in their day jobs in the future (as opposed to Marr who no longer had a permanent band to fall back on). To their credit though, they soldiered on and subsequent singles "Get the Message" and "Disappointed" proved to be a lot better. Still less than the sum of their parts but worthy nonetheless.

Barry White: "Never Never Gonna Give You Up"

2 December 1987

"Ah, Barry White. I love you."

— Lola Borg

The race for the 1987 Christmas Number One was on and this would be a competition unlike any seen before or since. For starters, the winner and runner-up were both excellent singles, a formidable one-two punch on any chart but one that's especially impressive considering the holiday season doesn't normally feature such quality. And while the Slade-Wizzard race in 1973 kicked off the competition and Band Aid-Wham!-Frankie in '84 likely resulted in the highest sales, this may be the most significant Xmas chart battle because this was the year it turned it into an annual tradition with betting shop odds and an entire nation being gripped by it. 

Rick Astley (more on him below) had been on the rise that year and had been a good bet to take the crown with a cagey double A side. Pet Shop Boys had also been in the midst of an exceptional chart run, which singer Neil Tennant would go on to describe as their 'imperial period'. The Pogues weren't in the same commercial league but their exceptional offering "Fairytale of New York" charmed enough people beyond their loyal fanbase to give them their only major hit and the only song of their's that anyone knows. Though "Fairytale..." was the most obviously Christmassy, all three had something of the seasonal favourite to aid their chances.

Elsewhere, the also-rans are a mixed bag. This issue's rightful SOTF should have been a reissue of Dusty Springfield's magnificent solo debut from 1963 "I Only Want to Be with You", one of the greatest pop songs off all time. Reviewer Lola Borg is less impressed by Bruce Springsteen's "Tunnel of Love", the title track to The Boss' masterpiece album from the same year. It's not really single material so I understand her disdain but it's still a vital cog in a brilliant LP. Wet Wet Wet serve up some Yuletide slush with "Angel Eyes (Home and Away)", a song I did like as a youngster but am far less fond of now. There are also two proper Christmas singles, the Rik Mayall/Ade Edmunson heavy metal spoof Bad News with "Cashing in on Christmas" and Run-DMC with "Christmas in Hollis", a number that would eventually become a classic but which unjustly flopped in the UK charts.

Alas, Borg doesn't place a flutter on any of these as she opts instead for the Paul Hardcastle 'Mammoth Mix' of a thirteen-year-old song by Barry White. She expresses fondness for most of the tunes mentioned above but the baritone lothario has clearly won her heart years earlier and this is her chance to recommend him to the youth of Britain. Well, not really. White had already had a hit single a couple months' earlier with "Sho' You Right" (his first UK Top 20 appearance in nearly a decade) and this remix was clearly intended to capitalise on his new found success. Sprucing up old hits was becoming more and more common at this time but older acts didn't tend to have chart longevity. The novelty of someone from the sixties or seventies could get punters into the shops but the law of diminishing returns would inevitably set in.

Originally released in 1973, "Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up" — tune remixed, title edited — was White's second US Top 10 hit as he began achieving the fame for which he is remembered today. It's hard to know what to say here beyond that it sounds like pretty much every Barry White song I've ever heard. British audiences in '87 would have been rightly struck by his distinctive voice (just as many of us were when he made a memorable appearance on The Simpsons in 1992) only to discover that this freshness only applies to whichever White song you happen to hear first. There's nothing wrong with "Never Never Gonna Give You Up", just as there's nothing amiss with anything White ever did. I appreciate the fact that while seventies' soul music was dominated by smooth types like Marvin Gaye and Al Green with their velvety voices to lure the female folk into the bedroom, White's deep, gravelly singing proved just as effective. It's just that if you've heard one of his songs, you can probably guess how the rest of them will go. (And if all of this didn't torpedo its chances, there may also have been some confusion with the title: "Never Gonna Give You Up" by (who else?) Rick Astley had been the year's biggest selling single so what was this song with almost the same title doing?)

"Always on My Mind" ended up taking the Christmas Number One, which for some remains one of pop's great injustices in that it denied The Pogues the top spot. I've always been a Pet Shop Boys fan so I can't be objective on this but perhaps we should all be content that such an excellent pair of singles took the top two spots. They may not be quite "Wuthering Heights"/"Denis" or "Are 'Friends' Electric?"/"Up the Junction" but they're close. Sure, it would have been nice if Run-DMC, Dusty Springfield and, yes, Barry White had done better but at least some of the cream still managed to rise to the top.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Rick Astley: "When I Fall in Love" / "My Arms Keep Missing You"

While The Beatles didn't actually invent the concept album, the double album nor the idea of writing your own songs, it seems they can be credited with the first double A side. John and Paul were said to argue about which song got the more prominent side and giving them equal billing was the compromise. This became the standard for double A's but Rick's attempt at the Christmas Number One marked a change for the medium. "When I Fall in Love" was there to get him to the top (even though it ultimately failed to do so) while "My Arms Keep Missing You" was meant to maintain interest past the New Year (even though it was already falling down the charts by that point). A smart strategy that didn't work out and has reduced the B side in name only to obscurity but it would be taken up other acts to varying degrees of success. "When I Fall in Love" is an expertly done copy of the original but it's still a drag and a blot on Rick's debut album. "My Arms Keep Missing You", however, is classic SAW and deserves to be better remembered, though I suppose you could say that about a few of his hits that aren't "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Pet Shop Boys: "Rent"

7 October 1987

"You can always rely on the Pet Shop Boys to write a good tune — even though half the time they (the tunes) vaguely sound as though they once belonged to someone else."

— Lola Borg

The Pet Shop Boys are back (BACK!) with their second Single of the Fortnight on the bounce. While "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" proved a big hit around the world and probably played a part in their cross-generational appeal, it isn't one of their signature numbers, the type that fans cry out for at concerts to this day. "West End Girls" had not only topped the charts everywhere but it quickly became a firm favourite among fans but there wasn't always this convergence of wide spread popularity and favour with the devoted. The punters may have sent "Heart" to number one but the fans preferred "Left to My Own Devices" which didn't manage to do so well.

Neil Tennant is credited with coming up with the term 'Imperial Phase', about then a singer or group is at the height of their popularity and has "the secret of contemporary pop music". Uniquely, The Beatles had it throughout their entire time as a popular act, Elton John had it through much of the early to mid-seventies and for much of the eighties it was all about the powerful trio of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince. For others, the Imperial Phase was much more fleeting. From July of 1987 through to the following summer, the Pet Shop Boys had five hit singles, a best selling album, made a feature film and began contributing songs to other artists. Their North American popularity hadn't yet waned and they were probably the most successful pop act in the world over those twelve months. You don't take a step wrong when you're at the peak of your imperial power — even if It Couldn't Happen Here had been mauled by critics, it said a lot of about their influence and level of success that they were able to have a film made at all.

Their five hit singles from their Imperial period are still well-remembered, and not just by their core audience. Their chart positions were 1, 2, 8, 1 and 1, with "It's a Sin", "Always on My Mind" and "Heart" all hitting the top while "What Have I Done to Deserve This?" would have joined them if not for the colossus of "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, giving them three chart toppers and one near miss. Yet, there in the middle of their imperial phase is that '8' that stands out like a sore thumb. That modest showing only dwarfs what it did in the US, where it failed to chart entirely. It might as well have reached 48. "Rent" would eventually go on to become one of their most popular singles but it was the runt of the litter in their hit singles basket. The album Actually having just come out a month earlier, some fans would have been hesitant to go out and buy it again, especially when they didn't do anything with the song itself aside from trimming it down to three-and-a-half-minutes for optimum airplay. Remixes of "Opportunities" and "Suburbia" a year earlier improved their chart fortunes but the edit of "Rent" wasn't as fortunate. It's kind of remarkable they chose it to be a single at all, as the simple but likable "Heart" was there on Actually's second side, a hit in waiting. The clever "Shopping" also had chart potential, as did "One More Chance". "Rent" is a much less obvious single, similar to the way "Jealousy" would end up as the fourth 7" pulled off of Behaviour: you wouldn't necessarily expect it but you're glad they went ahead with it.

Tom Hibbert called "Rent" a "mercenary love song" and that may be partially why it failed to do better with a wider audience. The song's narrator is, as Tennant has admitted, a kept woman who has been taken care of by her well-off boyfriend. She has a place to live, her expenses are paid for and she's never had to work for a living. She also has sacrificed true happiness for this life and is now resigned to a love that doesn't completely fulfill her. Tennant says he envisioned one of the Kennedys having this secret woman on the side that he has a long-term dalliance with. What we don't get is a sense of closure, as if her life will just go on being largely unhappy with just hints of a true relationship involved. The public doesn't want to have anything to do with such unromantic characters: if they were in a movie, they'd either discover true love with each other (kind of like in Pretty Woman) or she'd free herself of this affair and go it alone (like Muriel's Wedding). A bit of a wasted life, albeit one that is also acknowledged as not being so bad all things considered. The pop charts had no time for such bleak realism, imperial phase or not.

But being a man, I wondered about the other side of this tale. I had originally intended this entry to be a short story set in Jakarta about a young women who grew up in poverty but is now at the beck and call of a rich western businessman. She is able to provide for her mother and sisters and is the envy of her friends but she's grown depressingly resigned to this life. He flies in (I was imaging from either Hong Kong or Singapore) from time to time for business and that's when they can steal their moments together. I worked on this story for a while but hit a wall while trying to flesh out the character of the rich boyfriend. I wanted him to also have a sense that things weren't quite right but it never really rang true. He's the one perpetuating this lifestyle for the two of them so why on Earth would he want to change anything? And if he does want to end it, he has the money and the power in the relationship and he won't be affected long term.

At a time when glitzy American dramas like Dallas and Dynasty were peak (and British telly presented Bread as a comedic, working class answer to those two), few looked beyond the luxury goods and high living. At a time when it was still assumed that Charles and Diana were relatively happy (or perhaps 'weren't entirely unhappy' would be more accurate), many would have traded to have a similar swanky lifestyle. And at a time when Thatcher was busy selling off public utilities (which Tennant and Lowe spoofed in the aforementioned "Shopping") and claiming that there's no such thing as society, the establishment only saw power players and not the human beings lurking underneath. What few dared say was that there's a price for living a glamourous life but only the Pet Shop Boys — in all their imperial power — were there to document it.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

INXS: "Need You Tonight"

Groups from the Antipodes traditionally take longer to break in Britain than in the States and this was never truer than in 1987 when INXS began conquering America while still being little known across the Atlantic. Kick was their sixth album and was packed to the brim with potential hits yet they couldn't get themselves arrested in the UK, a country that just so happened to be falling for Neighbours and its generation of young actors and pop stars at the same time. "Need You Tonight" would soon go to number one in the US but it would require another year to really get going in Britain. What took them so bloody long to embrace the sextet? Having a dishy, charismatic frontman in Michael Hutchence wasn't enough, nor was the sexy rock produced by a tight, underrated group of musicians. They probably didn't even care for the state-of-the-art video first time 'round. At the time I was ten years old and rightly assumed that everyone in the world loved INXS. And they did, it just took some longer than others.

J.M. Silk: "She's So Far Away"

1 July 1987

"Following in the footsteps of all the other Chicago "House" records that have an entire nation wriggling their rumps all over the dance floors comes this — a "House" record that doesn't sound like one — except for the odd squibbly bit now and then."

— Lola Borg

It's amazing to think what a left field smash Steve "Silk" Hurley's "Jack Your Body" was. It didn't have the benefit of record label promotion, the BBC wouldn't play it and the video looks uncannily like something pieced together by a not-especially-talented YouTuber. Smash Hits didn't bother reviewing it either, although it's impossible to say if that was because they didn't think it merited an appraisal or if they weren't even sent a copy to begin with. Yet, it went all the way to number one. Hurley was back in his native Chicago when he got the news and assumed it had gone to the top of the dance charts. He probably didn't celebrate the way The Beatles did when they found out that "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was topping the charts in the US, no.

As if to compensate, Lola Borg is here this fortnight to give her approval to the follow up to the follow up of "Jack Your Body". She doesn't go right out and say it but it seems he hasn't just put out another house anthem full of samples but now has a proper song along as well. You might think that he had another smash on his hands with "She's So Far Away" but it ended up being an even bigger flop than previous single "Let the Music Take Control", which at least came close to a top 40 entry. Hey, wha' happened?

Looking back at the early days of the house music scene, British reporters and industry types have admitted that they didn't know what to do with it. These weren't pop stars, they were faceless DJ's. They didn't cavort on stage with sexy guitars, they stood behind a mixing desk, one hand scratching away at a record, the other pressing half a headphone set to their ears. Of course they didn't sing or any of that nonsense! Compounding the problem was that there weren't many figures in print, radio or TV championing it, though it wouldn't be long before Bruno Brooks and John Peel began going all in with the house. As Miranda Sawyer told David Hepworth and Mark Ellen on their Word in Your Ear podcast, Smash Hits had difficulty fitting the square peg of house music DJs into the round hole of pop. (Well, she didn't say those words exactly but I'll help myself to some licence)

But members of the British media shouldn't be so hard on themselves since the house acts of the time were equally clueless. Though Farley "Jackmaster" Funk and vocalist Darryl Pandy were smart enough to make the trip across the Atlantic to appear on Top of the Pops to promote their hit single "Love Can't Turn Around", others didn't bother. British groups who enjoy Stateside success despite more modest sales back home, from The Zombies to Bush, tend to promptly head off to the US to tour the country to death — and plenty of them even more there — but American acts aren't usually so keen to transplant themselves to the Old World. Hurley admits that other priorities got in the way and that his management advised him to stay home.

Amongst a media that hadn't the faintest idea how to handle this new explosion and performers who didn't know anything about the world of pop, "Jack Your Body" became an unexpected number one and, just as importantly, would launch house music in the minds of the British public. The fact that it now sounds simple and primitive shouldn't take anything away from its importance. But for Hurley it was meant to be a lark and wasn't representative of his sound. The single had been credited to Hurley himself but most of the rest of his work was done under the name of J.M. Silk. He was back doing his day job, which didn't involve making the kids in Britain go nuts over a futuristic new sound.

The amazing thing about "She's So Far Away" is how it feels as much a part of the past as anything else. House music had its roots in the underground clubs ever since the decline of disco and the synthesized horns, song structure and strong but characterless baritone of singer Keith Nunnally are very much throwbacks. As Borg says, there are those "squibbly" bits but they're far subtler and not about to catch the ears of the impressionable. On the surface, it might seem more commercial but so too is it much more in line with dance music. Fittingly, the "squibbly" bits are the best part; otherwise, it's effectively an afterthought record that Bobby O could have knocked out half a decade earlier.

As ever within the sub-genres of the rock era, the British quickly took to house music and it would be their own acts who would lead the way, particularly when it came to chart presence. But you have to think they learned from earlier missteps. Bomb the Bass followed up their breakthrough hit "Beat Dis" with much more of a pop-based house number but Tim Simenon hedged his bets by putting it out as a double A-side with something much more in line with its predecessor. Mark Moore recruited three young women to perform some "vox", "sampled vox" (whatever that is) and percussion but also to give S'Express the image of a proper group and not a typical house act with a DJ scratching away at a turntable. The Beatmasters, Coldcut and D-Mob all began bringing in guest vocalists. Even some of the Americans began to follow suit: by 1988, Detroit techno house outfit Inner City scored a big UK hit with "Big Fun" and they spared nothing to make themselves known in the country that had taken to them. When their next single "Good Life" was released, they were being featured in Smash Hits and vocalist Paris Grey could be seen mugging for the camera in a video shot in London. The influential DJ and producer Frankie Knuckles would soon spend considerable time in Britain and Marshall Jefferson ended up settling there. House would gradually become known as techno and now it's basically EDM and, if we still don't know what to do with it, then there's certainly no getting rid of it.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Deacon Blue: "Loaded"

"Another miserable Scottish group (of which there are many)", is how Borg describes her initial impressions of ver Blue. Fair enough, they were always a group that had to grow on people and "Loaded" would quickly grow on a certain Hits critic. If only other music hacks would be so generous. Not one of the highlights of their superb debut album Raintown, it is nevertheless a solid number albeit one that doesn't suggest greater things in store. The magnificent "Dignity" aside, their early singles failed to give an adequate representation of what they were all about. It wouldn't be for another fifteen months that they would release something that would make plenty of punters suddenly take notice — even if a good many critics would remain unimpressed.

Duran Duran: "Skin Trade"

11 February 1987

"Duran are apparently all quite chuffed with this single and for once, their smugness is justified."

— Lola Borg

The New Pop explosion of the early eighties (known in North America as 'the second British invasion") would have been a distant memory five years later but its legacy still cast a large shadow over the music scene. Some groups had broken up (Wham! did so amicably with a memorable farewell concert the previous summer, Culture Club had fallen apart spectacularly and Frankie Goes to Hollywood were about to follow suit) while others desperately tried to remain relevant (Spandau Ballet's gambit of going po-faced and serious worked with one single but their popularity quickly vanished, Madness had been through diminishing returns over the previous two years and were soon to re-brand themselves The Madness, much to the general disinterest of everyone, Soft Cell became impossible to sell). Yet, people like George Michael and Boy George were still properly famous in a way that a newer (and decidedly more handsome) face like Nick Kamen wasn't.

Duran Duran had kept on but this wasn't without its challenges. They desired a break following a rapid rise to the top but ended up forming a pair of pointless splinter acts before regrouping to do a very meh James Bond theme in 1985. Their records no longer had the thrill of "Rio", "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "The Reflex" and only exposed them as having suspect talents — which was also affirmed by their poor showing at Live Aid in which Simon Le Bon proved once and for all that he was not one of his generation's finest vocalists. Andy Taylor realised he no longer had any business playing in a pop group when his heart was in metal. Roger Taylor, perhaps the most in need of some kip during their proposed hiatus that never happened, decided to pack the pop life in for some rural relaxation. Reduced to the trio of Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and John Taylor (there's something not quite right about a Duran Duran lineup with only one unrelated Taylor), the group roped in Nile Rodgers to co-produce and some ace sessioners to augment the sound.

The results were mixed. The "Notorious" single did well enough but its fleeting chart run ought to have signaled that their days of guaranteed top three singles was over; in terms of quality, it has a nice, welcome back novelty about it but, as Lola Borg suggests, it didn't have the wheels to make a lasting impression. The album of the same name disappointed with just a single week in the top 40 in spite of some encouraging reviews but they knew they had an ace up their sleeves with its second single that was sure to revive their fortunes in the new year.

Yeah, about that. "Skin Trade" was something the group was extremely proud of but for whatever reason it failed to click with the public. The record spent a month drifting around the twenties before disappearing, giving them their worst chart performance since their forgettable second single "Careless Memories". For the love of god, "New Moon on Monday" did better and nobody even remembers that one. The dumper seemed to beckon but at least they were serving up a great song as they began their slide.

Putting out a great single that goes nowhere is nothing new. When Slade released the magnificent "How Does It Feel" from their film Flame they were stunned by its relative failure. "The Day Before You Came" is one of ABBA's finest moments and it just scraped the lower end of the Top 40. "Being Boring" is arguably the Pet Shop Boys' masterpiece and it somehow broke their streak of Top 10 hits. And joining them on this potential Now That's What I Call a Great Song That Almost Flopped comp (or, if you must, Spotify playlist) "Skin Trade" takes its proud place.

Wikipedia suggests that its poor showing was down to fans being turned off by their new direction and sound. Gone were Le Bon's pseudo-intellectualized word salad lyrics and production with far too much going on, which I suppose would puzzle listeners who reckoned "Is There Something I Should Know" to be the pinnacle of pop. Rodgers' funk guitar playing (with some nice power chords from future full time Duran Warren Cuccurullo) adds a nice texture to the sexiness that everyone present seems to have embraced. And, this being what must have been the most beshagged group of the decade, wasn't it about time Duran Duran began embracing their carnal side? Was this what turned people off, Simon Le Bon of all people being interested in sex?

That said, there are adult themes that might have made some want to look the other way. It's easy to listen to it assuming they'd all just been back from a month of illicit rumpo in Bangkok and I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's what inspired it. Plus, Le Bon isn't doing himself any favours by channeling Mick Jagger and Prince, two of pop's most legendary pervs. The singer did try to explain that it was actually about the exploitation of everyone and how we're all working for the skin trade but his appeal to universalism is hard to square with the lyrics, his singing and the overall performance — and, indeed, the record's banned sleeve depicting a young woman's buttocks relieved of any garments.

"Skin Trade" failed to register with ver kids but it really is the group's crowning achievement. Pop stars typically mature but few manage to keep their early energy alive and fewer still are able to do so in such sleazy fashion, embracing their true selves along the way. Rhodes and Taylor were always underrated musicians but the two really come into their own, with the former's keyboard playing being the backbone of the song (as well as the fact that he was the most accomplished musically and had a significant role in terms of production) and the latter's bass making it rhythmically their strongest outing. As stated above, Le Bon was not the greatest singer but he puts his vocals to good use: by being more like Bowie and Jagger and Prince, he became more like himself. They managed to make it through the rest of the decade free from the dumper with a tougher, edgier sound but without material close to as good as this.

~~~~~

Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Fine Young Cannibals: "Ever Fallen in Love"

Often cited as among the worst cover versions in pop history, I'll cop to once having liked FYC's rendition of "Ever Fallen in Love". It got on my wick less than many of the other hits on their second album The Raw & the Cooked (a rare LP whose deep cuts are vastly superior to its singles) and I liked its uneasy vibe. Then I heard the original by Buzzcocks and I've never been able to appreciate this second rate recording since. Former Beat members Andy Cox and David Steele should have known better though Roland Gift does his best with that little goes a long was voice of his. A nice try but woeful nonetheless.

The Jesus & Mary Chain: Some Candy Talking

2 July 1986

"It may well be filched from a very, very ancient LP by The Velvet Underground but who gives a flying fish when confronted with something so tragic and melancholy and melodic and utterly delightful?"

— Lola Borg

The Jesus & Mary Chain last popped up on this page back on Christmas Day, 2019. In Smash Hits time (ie real time), it's actually been about eighteen months between "Never Understand" getting an enthusiastic SOTF from DJ Andy Kershaw and the Some Candy Talking EP being similarly recommended by staff writer Lola Borg. Listen to the two releases back-to-back, however, and it's like time standing still. You'd even be forgiven for assuming that the latter work predated the former.

Indie groups who hit it big are frequently accused of selling out, typically by the very fans that helped get them there. What they fail to consider — beyond the fact that there's nothing inherently wrong with success — is that having hits, becoming famous and making money changes everything. Music critic Taylor Parkes recently made this point on the Chart Music podcast in the context of The Smiths and Morrissey's rapid decline as a songwriter. Drawn to the singer's sharp early work, Parkes concludes that he had a lifetime as a angsty, self-righteous youth to compile his observations into the songs that make up the group's self-titled debut album, as well as the material that made up the companion compilation Hatful of Hollow. By 1985, his bedsit scribblings have all dried up and he's reduced to composing fresh material from the perspective of a whiny pop star, tackling serious issues with naiveté, making lame quips about the poor and the needy being "selfish and greedy" and being increasingly unconvincing about being inadequate. Sure, he invented the concept of powerful individuals pretending to be victims (cheers, Stephen) but his art suffered. (Though at least the bugger never sold out so there is that)

The Jesus & Mary Chain weren't on the same level as either critical darlings nor in terms of commercial might as The Smiths but they were doing all right for themselves. Psychocandy sold in respectable numbers for such an abrasive act and it managed to finish second to Tom Waits' Rain Dogs as NME's Album of the Year (nine spots ahead of Meat Is Murder by The Smiths). But tensions were high with William Reid fraying from the constant touring, an over-indulgence in alcohol and drummer Bobby Gillespie's imminent departure. This could very easily have been the moment they lost the plot, in terms of both their creativity and their sanity, but for the Reid brothers decision, as Zoë Howe recounts in her splendid JAMC biography Barbed Wire Kisses, to "return to East Kilbride to try to write songs in the kitchen".

The idea of Jim and William spending their precious free time in the nondescript home they grew up in right in the middle of a bleak Scottish New Town outside of Glasgow in the greyness of Thatcher's Britain might seem peculiar but it was precisely the same setting in which they conjured up the likes of "Upside Down", "Never Understand" and "Just Like Honey". Composing on the road may have suited the talents of Lennon and McCartney as they sat on hotel beds "face to face and eyeball to eyeball" but it couldn't have done much for the volatile Reids. The "inspiration" of East Kilbride was in its lack of culture, its stifling atmosphere and its neighbours with their (to quote The Style Council in their own New Town demolishing "Come to Milton Keynes) "curtains all drawn". This was the sort of place they came from.

Though released as an EP, the title track is the clear standout and could have easily stood on its own as a single. This scarcely matters (Lola Borg doesn't mention the format and keeps her review strictly to the A side) but it does give equal prominence (at least in theory) to companion tracks "Psychocandy" and "Hit". It could just have been a thoughtful gesture to fans by having more than two cuts on their latest release, plus the promise of acoustic demos on the  Double 7" and 12" versions to really get their followers down to the local Our Price. This material is all perfectly fine even if there's something off about a JAMC song that isn't plugged in with maximum distortion.

As for "Some Candy Talking" itself, the song is about sex (not heroin as is often reported). Had the Reids been at work on it in a hotel room in Munich or Philadelphia, it would have been an altogether different beast. On the road there's booze flowing and groupies at one's disposal (or so I hear) so it's hard to imagine yearning for sex and futilely seeking it out coming from a night spent with a woman. Back in their family kitchen in East Kilbride, their sexual frustrations returned. There's no glamour in being a guitarist for an indie rock band up there. People talk about success and how everything changes when you return home but inadequacies also come back. The bully who duffed you up on a regular basis at school might suddenly be pleased to see you but how happy are you bumping into him? Now, for most this doesn't matter or it would be a situation to avoid but it was just what Jim and William needed. Nothing humbles the ego like being a nothing again.

Morale had been low on the road and their misery remained while holed up in East Kilbride. Having previously taken pride in their ability to fuse sugar-sweet melodies with ferocious lyrical darkness on earlier material, the Beach Boys/Girl Group lightness is expunged on "Some Candy Talking" in favour of pure aggression and pain. Is it a joy to listen to? Somehow it is. Yes, as Borg says, they sound more like The Velvet Underground than ever but there's lots to mine in "I'm Waiting for the Man" and "Venus in Furs" and the results of which developed into the sparse beauty of what would be their best album, 1987's Darklands. All the while never quite getting that wretched Scots New Town out of them. And how could they? They needed it now more than ever.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

The Vindaloo Summer Special: "Rockin' with Rita"

The daft side of indie which makes for a welcome pallet cleanser after all this dour Jesus & Mary Chain stuff, The Vindaloo Summer Special were a one off "super" group made up of comedian Ted Chippington, a still punk We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It and a nearly done Nightingales. Some good, if rather pointless, bit of summer fun, it certainly gives some idea of what a British B-52's might sound like. Amazingly, it almost became a hit but there were much worse records to be buying during the summer of '86.