Scritti Politti: "Faithless"

29 April 1982

"Words like "righteous, testify and faith" do not a soul record make but this is studded with more soul than 78% of the trans-Atlantic garbage on offer this week."

— Martin Fry

It didn't occur to me the first time 'round but it is shocking just how piss poor the bulk of the singles on offer this fortnight are. This outstanding Single of the Fortnight aside, there's aren't many winners present. And don't go away assuming that some of them are brilliant records that the public ignorantly passed on; the bulk of this sorry bunch is dreary faux-soul or tired post-punk. It's almost as if not everyone was meant to create sturdy pop.

Two that succeeded in doing so were ABC's Martin Fry and Scritti Politti's Green Gartside. As I already mentioned the last time "Faithless" came up, the two had their similarities in coming out of punk before eventually evolving into purveyors of slick eighties' sophisti-pop. It's a transition that isn't easily squared unless the petty critic takes the simplistic path of charging that they both "sold out".

If you happened to caught an early Scritti Politti gig in Camden or heard one of their D.I.Y. efforts like "Skank Bloc Bologna" on John Peel's Radio 1 show, then went several years without encountering them before coming across mid-eighties' hits like "Wood Beez" or "The Word Girl" then it be understandable to conclude that they had indeed "sold out". If, however, you'd been paying close attention to their progress then there's no excuse. Those scratchy indie records had always been leaden with literary and political references but it took longer for the music to catch up. The excellent compilation Early displays a gradual shift from skeletal post-punk towards the soul music that Green had grown up on.

The other thing is that the minimalism was still present even as the presentation and sound had shifted. Like "The "Sweetest Girl"" before it, "Faithless" is soulful and lush but so too is it as bare as anything he released half-a-decade earlier. The Blue Nile's Paul Buchanan would express surprise that the D.I.Y. punk ethos hadn't been identified in his group's work since chords were kept to a minimum, their playing was deceptively simplistic and they had little beyond a Linn drum machine in terms of backing. On "Faithless" there is a little more going on than on, say, "Tinseltown in the Rain" but when a vocodor and a trio of backing vocalists in place of a gospel choir are what you're relying upon for backing then 

Moving away from post-punk but not quite ready to embrace pop the way they would on 1985's Cupid & Psyche '85, this period of Scritti Politti's erratic lifespan has been somewhat forgotten. Their smattering of hits was still a ways off and Green would eventually return to the guitars following several largely successful experiments with hip hop which concluded at the end of the nineties. What is one to do, then, with a part of the group that few identify with?

Album Songs to Remember (as well as its companion singles "The "Sweetest Girl"", "Faithless" and the double A-side "Asylums in Jerusalem"/"Jacques Derrida" which were all decked out in gorgeous sleeves making them all look like luxury goods purchased Hong Kong airport's duty free lounge) deserves much better. Rather than being too much of a compromise between what came before and what was to come, it is the most fully realised account of Green's immense musical talents. His deconstructionist pop peaked during this time, with future attempts being much more loving and heartfelt and not in the spirit of his literary interests.

To the extent that Scritti Politti did sell out, the best they were capable of was a Top 20 album and three singles which all stalled outside the Fun 40 — hardly a case of Green selling his soul for pop stardom. More to the point, his creativity wasn't dulled in pursuit of the mainstream; it is only in a

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Shakin' Stevens: "Shirley"

With such a pitiful pile of singles to deal with, is it any wonder Fry overdoes the praise a little for the latest from Shakin' Stevens? Shakey "sounds like he enjoys making records and that sets him apart from 95% of the other acts on display today". Too right but does his obvious enjoyment translate into a top record? It's good fun like many of his nibs' big hits but there's not a whole lot to it. Clocking in at just over two minutes, it nevertheless feels a bit too long. That said, he hammers the point home much more annoyingly on 

Scritti Politti: "Faithless"

29 April 1982

"The revamped, remodelled Scritti Politti deliver a slinky desert-island-shore, pineapple-sky soundtrack. The cream always rises to the top."
— Martin Fry

Pop stars— or DJ's or school boys — guesting in the Smash Hits singles review seat was something that produced mixed results over the years. It was a special treat that was there almost from the off — one of the first being a very entertaining, very bitchy rant from XTC's Andy Partridge which somehow managed to prove that he could bash a collection of 45's in print far more effectively than whenever he ripped into male chauvinism ("Down in the Cockpit" from English Settlement), global politics ("Here Comes President Kill Again" from Oranges & Lemons) or his ex-wife ("Your Dictionary" from Apple Venus Volume 1) — but one that would inevitably become bastardised by "critics" who had bad taste in music couldn't write. (On the other hand, they never went to the extreme of rival mag Number One who always seemed to have a guest pop star reviewer of dubious taste)

Stepping up this fortnight is ABC's Martin Fry, a man who was at the top of his game in the spring of 1982. Coming off their debut single — and SOTF — "Tears Are Not Enough" from the previous autumn, they'd recently scored their first Top Ten hit with "Poison Arrow" and their soon to be critically acclaimed album The Lexicon of Love was in the can and a few weeks away from hitting the shops. It's impossible to say if Hepworth and Ellen and co were prescient in choosing Fry to sift through a pile of new releases at this juncture (it's either that or he just happened to be available) but they couldn't have picked a better individual who had their pulse on the sound of '82.

There's a significance to Fry's anointing of Scritti Politti's "Faithless" as a SOTF. Like ABC, the Srcits came out of punk and were now heading in the direction of a slicker, more soulful sound. Green Gartside's band had long been darlings of post-punk indie scenesters in Britain and their move towards pop was an event that may have horrified their narrow but loyal fanbase but probably gave a boost to contemporaries. Trading in their rough DIY sound for synths and gospel may sound like the dictionary definition of selling out but in applying his songwriting talents and still sparse arrangements to modern pop, Gartside was upping the ante for Paul Weller, Kevin Rowland and, yes, Martin Fry.

"Faithless" itself is pretty damn good, if not quite as glorious as ABC's seminal records from the same time. Building off of their creative breakthrough, "The 'Sweetest Girl'", it name drops its predecessor, though to what end I'm still trying to figure out. Not that it matters since the vocoder gospel soul on display here is a huge leap forward. Obviously hindsight does me favours here but there's a sense that they're on to something that certainly has its own merits but isn't quite chart ready. I usually consider 'transitional' to be a dubious term for pop criticism (either an artist or group likely didn't know they were in transition at the time or they're someone like Miles Davis or David Bowie who was always transitioning or it tends to trivialise a work for being around in order to get us to the next work — or it's a combination of the three) but perhaps it applies here. Gartside was still signed to indie label Rough Trade at this point and he was yet to jettison his increasingly disgruntled bandmates and these elements were likely still pulling him towards his DIY roots. (In fact, I'm not so sure that he ever relinquished that spirit even as his sound altered)

A pop group's pop group. I have no idea if this title has been bestowed upon any other bands over the past fifty or sixty years — though the words Big Star and Jellyfish certainly spring to mind — but I would like to put forth my nomination. Scritti Politti were never quite critical favourites nor did they seem to inspire a cult devotion but they were admired by their peers and influenced the sound of the eighties. The fact that would inspire the names of both Wet Wet Wet and Milli Vanilli says all you need to know. Imperial leather indeed, Mr. Fry.

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Also Reviewed This Fortnight

Bad Manners: "Got No Brains"

If "Faithless" catches Scritti Politti on the cusp of a commercial and creative apogee, the latest release has Buster Bloodvessel and his gruff Mad Banner cohorts visiting ver dumper for the first time, a place they'd be firmly residing in within the year. A shame since this is yet another perfectly likable chunk of low brow reggae pop straight from its source. 'Yet another', though, means that maybe the public had grown weary of their shtick by this point. As Fry notes, the hooks they pack into this betray a smartness that they wouldn't ever have admitted to. Too clever/stupid by half then.