'I don't know the answer to that question. If I knew I would tell you...;
Valentine's Day is done but 15th Februry still feels like a great day to play Lexicon of Love and transport me back in time to 1982. The year it came out amd the year I left secondary school and graduated from Elvis Costello regulation NHS frames to cooler John Lennon specs and became a candidate for kisses, lovehearts and poisoned arrows myself.
I didn't particularly like ABC at the time. I didn't know my Motown from my Stax ir my Temptations from my Velvelettes. I didn't realise exactly how skilled Lexicon of Love was. That it started with a west End musical with the orchestra warming up in the bear pit and climaxed to gasps and swoons and a standing ovation from a full house. everyone coming onstage for the curtain call in glitter and sequins.
This is a funky record too but not one where any song ever outstays its welcome. Trevir Horn is all lightness and strings to contrast Martin Hammett's with sturm und drang..Martin Fry understands Harpers & Queens and the stock market and was equally comfortable on the cover of NME, The Face and Smash Hits. This is knowing but also incredibly graceful. .
People made records like this in those days. Dare, Rattlesnakes, Sulk, Tin Drum, Imperial Bedroom, Penthouse & Pavement, Ocean Rain. We didn't realise there was am expiry date on the New Pop party. That Thatcherism essentially would reel this stuff in and records like thes would be a rarity by 1985. But New Pop was great while it lasted and it's great to look back at now. Personally I sometimes wonder whether the human imagination is slightly poorer now. There are plenty of great records still being made. But this kind of record seems like its made without a safety net.
I wasn't into them, either. Still trying to find my musical feet and it was too shiny for me. But I did meet someone at university who liked them. Told me that Martin Fry had an English degree, which was rare at the time for pop stars, and did make me think about their lyrics differently. Think you might be right about pop music at the time, though. Might be good to revisit at some point.
ReplyDeleteAll that stuff in the charts Darren in 1982. I was a bit of a late developer. But by the time I got to college I became less shy and more confident in terms of what I liked.But so many bands were astonishingly inventive and creative. Then all those great guitar bands for the next three or four years.I think I was really waiting for guitars and books in retrospect. I know the Triffids and Go Betweens are important to you. The Smiths, R.E.M. Aztec Camera, Orange Juice Lloyd Cole. It was a wonderful time. But I could see that for so many records from about 1977 when I went to secondary school though I didn't buy them at the time. Lexicon of Love is incredibly clever. As were so many of the records of the time.
DeleteYes, I was a late developer, too. Like you, it was the guitar bands that I was drawn to. The literate guitar bands, in particular. Pop music was all I knew (through radio, TOTP etc) and instinctively reacted against that. But, looking back, there was some great pop music. And, thinking about it, bands like OMD and Eurythmics were amongst my first loves, so I wasn't completely immune to it!
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