If, like me, you haven’t been paying much attention to what Marc Almond has been up to recently then this might come as something of a surprise. As far as I can make out, he’s appearing in a play about the plague called Ten Plagues, a soundtrack for which appears next week. This is To Dream:
The top ten singles this week looks like this:
From a chance meeting in 1981 to an entire career of electronic pop – sometimes literary and academic, and other times just a touch camp. Pet Shop Boys have come to be extremely highly regarded by everyone who knows what they’re talking about as purveyors of exquisite pop.
West End girls hitting the number one spot on its second attempt in 1985, and every single from their 1987 album Actually hitting the top ten. Or turning Always on My Mind into an energetic electronic number one. Or just missing the top spot with their cover of Go West in 1993. In short, there are rather too many to count.
The 2003 compilation PopArt is the probably best of the three that they have released to date, collecting nearly all of their hits from the first twenty years, and only lacking a handful of recent hits. It isn’t in chronological order though, if you’re the sort of person who cares about these things.
Move on to Very (1993) next, to hear them at the top of their pop game, and then jump back to fan favourite Behaviour (1990), which will introduce you to their more melancholic side. Finally jump right up to the present day with Electric (2013) and get ready to wave your hands in the air.
Initially, Nightlife (1999), Release (2002), or Fundamental (2005). Each has its moments, but you should work your way through the rest of their career before you get to these. The musical and ballet soundtracks Closer to Heaven (2001) and The Most Incredible Thing (2011) are probably for completists only.
Their other soundtrack, Battleship Potemkin (2005) is often overlooked but is worth hearing, as are the two b-side collections, Alternative (1995) and Format (2011), both of which are overflowing with fantastic hidden gems. And if you can find a copy of Relentless (1993) then you will be very well rewarded indeed.
Another set of early New Order demos is Western Works, recorded in 1980. These are great quality recordings, taken directly from studio masters dating to September of that year, less than six months after Ian Curtis‘s suicide and the untimely end of Joy Division. The full story of the demos is related here.
The first two tracks are demo versions of Dreams Never End, one of the better tracks on New Order‘s debut album Movement (1981). While probably not among the band’s finest moments, both versions (with a quieter and then louder guitar part) are entirely listenable, and unlike some of the demos we’ve listened to previously, do show some promise.
Homage was, the last time we heard it, pretty awful, and the studio version isn’t an awful lot better either. It never got released officially, and perhaps that’s for the best – the chanted “in this room,” vocal is perhaps the track’s most redeeming factor, although the lyrics in general, when heard properly, turn out to be rather poignant and beautiful.
Ceremony didn’t make it onto an album either, but became a single in its own right in 1981. This demo version isn’t anywhere as good as the final release, but it is clearly one of the strongest on this collection. It started life as a Joy Division track, and is among the best of New Order‘s first couple of years, and it stands out even on this tape.
Next comes Truth, which would later appear on 1981’s Movement, and in this form starred what I can only assume is an early drum machine, and not a huge amount else. It’s raw, and it has promise, and it’s almost entirely unlike Joy Division, which was probably a good thing at the time.
The final track seems to be entitled Are You Ready Are You Ready Are You Ready for This? to which the obvious answer would be, “Sorry, could I have the question again?” Again, it mainly consists of some drum machine hi-hats, a PA-style vocal, and a few experimental electronic noises, and it’s every bit as bad as that sounds. And yet, for a band in the aftermath of their lead singer’s suicide, it’s also fascinatingly experimental, and really quite intriguing. Realistically it was never going to be released anywhere, but it’s also a truly fascinating listen – perhaps the most fascinating on this entire collection.
This week sees the twentieth anniversary of the release of Saint Etienne‘s third full album Tiger Bay. After the experimental electronic pop of Foxbase Alpha (1990) and So Tough (1992) and before the all-out sixties-flavoured pop of Good Humor (1998), it occupies an odd place in their discography. It includes three enormous hit singles, in the shape of Hug My Soul, Like a Motorway, and Pale Movie, and yet it was released a year and a bit too early to include the vastly more memorable He’s on the Phone, and also skipped the brilliantly festive I Was Born on Christmas Day.
The album opens, curiously, with the instrumental Urban Clearway, which is a great, uplifting track, but still a slightly strange track to open an album. It is followed by the acoustic, folk-tinged Former Lover, which – perhaps a little late – introduces the vocals of Sarah Cracknell to this release. At this stage she was still really only a guest vocalist who happened to be on all the singles, so she doesn’t turn up all that often on this album as a whole. But despite her appearance, this track isn’t Saint Etienne at their best, sadly.
Hug My Soul, however, is. It seems strange in a way that they would wait until the third track to unleash this one. The third single from the album, it was only a relatively minor hit, but is about as perfect a pop song as anyone ever could hope to record.
It is followed by the brilliantly dark Like a Motorway, in its full – nearly six minute – glory. Three albums on they may have been, but it’s probably fair to say that Saint Etienne were still finding their “sound” at this time, and this track is a wonderful deviation from anything they have done before or after, with its dim and slightly dirty synth bass backing. This may be pop, but it’s not quite pop as you ever knew it before.
Closing side A is the largely instrumental On the Shore, which features a surprise guest wail or two from Shara Nelson, and a fun slightly acid bass sound, alongside a very laid back instrumental flute-led track. It’s a very odd departure from their normal sound, but it’s very enjoyable nonetheless.
Marble Lions is closer to the traditional sound of Saint Etienne, with evocative lyrics about London and a catchy pop chorus. The production – largely just a vocal with a flanged guitar or two – makes for a slightly strange track when it’s listened to out of context, but the ingredients are all there.
Then comes the last of the singles, the exceptional Pale Movie. It’s uplifting, slightly Spanish in style, and entirely brilliant. It also deserved much greater acclaim than the number 28 peak which it scraped to on the charts. It is followed by a lovely instrumental in the form of Cool Kids of Death.
On the original release, Tankerville and Western Wind were confusingly presented as three different tracks, whereas the new reissue combines them all into one seven minute piece, which seems rather more logical. At each end, the traditional folk song Western Wind is a lovely piece, with the soaring strings and experimental electronics of the middle Tankerville section in between. Perhaps an odd combination, but a good one.
Finally, The Boy Scouts of America closes the album, again with some adventurous production which somehow doesn’t quite work. Cracknell’s vocal is accompanied by a warping electronic backing, and then strings and other instruments turn up for a crescendo between each verse. It’s an odd song, and a particularly strange choice of closing track, but it’s still fun.
Despite being released in the midst of a slew of exceptional singles, Tiger Bay still feels very much like a band trying to find its sound. Saint Etienne‘s experimental side is good, but somehow it just doesn’t feel like what they’re supposed to be doing. They also seem to have got the tracks in the wrong order, as the various international releases with entirely different tracks seemed to illustrate. But after four years of side projects, their comeback with Good Humor would entirely redress the balance.
The special edition reissue of Tiger Bay is still available second hand or as a download.
The 59th Ivor Novello Awards ceremony quietly took place on 22nd May at Grosvenor House in London.
Which is an oddly named award until you realise that “PRS for Music” is what the sponsoring organisation calls itself these days. Nominees:
Winner: Passenger / Mike Rosenberg
Winner: John McCabe
Nominees:
Winner: Charlie Mole for Ripper Street
Nominees:
Winner: James Blake
Winner: Mumford & Sons
Nominees:
Winner: Simon Fisher Turner
Winner: Jerry Dammers
Nominees:
Winner: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Winner: Jeff Beck
Nominees:
Winner: London Grammar
Winner: Tom Odell
Winner: The Chemical Brothers
Winner: Christine McVie
Winner: Nile Rodgers
Visit the official Ivor Novello Awards website here, and you can see my summary of last year’s awards here.
In 2003, three members of different American rock groups worked together on a one-off project as The Postal Service. Unpredictably, the result was far from rock, although it might just about have scraped into the category that Americans call “alternative”. There was a certain charm to the dirty electronic sound which appeared, and it’s definitely an album worth owning.
The first track is the organ-driven The District Sleeps Alone Tonight, which is a strong opener, although it’s perhaps not the best piece on the album. From the beginning, you can hear that the influences are pretty unusual – the drumming and production in particular are quite unlike anything you’ll have come across elsewhere.
Next comes the lead single, the brilliant Such Great Heights. On the new remastered version of the album, it sounds fantastic – I’ve mentioned before that much as I loved this album, I could never quite get the hang of the sound on the original. The new version is totally different – the nasty overloaded grubbiness has gone, and for the first time it seems to be there in all the fidelity it deserves. And with its manic drumming and great melody, this song sounds every bit as fantastic as it should.
The acid nursery rhyme sound (yes, that’s a genre that I just invented) of Sleeping In is pretty compelling too, and while the song itself perhaps isn’t the strongest on the album, as a part of the greater whole, it fulfils its function perfectly. Then the duet Nothing Better is a bit odd too, but all the pieces fit together even so.
This album, Give Up, was relatively successful in the US, but only ever received a cult following elsewhere in the world, and so became a slightly surprising word-of-mouth success. A lot of potential fans seem to have dismissed it outright initially, while many others discovered it entirely by accident, and got a lot out of it.
The first half of the album closes with the lovely Recycled Air, full of soft and gentle charm, and a compelling description of air travel, which ultimately gives way to the less exciting Clark Gable, a slightly odd movie fantasy which takes place on the London Underground.
Then comes my favourite track on the album, the brilliant We Will Become Silhouettes. Quite what’s so good about it I’m not sure – I think there’s something rather special about the chord change in the chorus which just grabs me every time.
The rest of Give Up is less compelling – This Place is a Prison brings some entertaining drum work and some odd lyrics about trying to get a drink in this place. Brand New Colony has a nice 8-bit feel, but not a huge amount else, and Natural Anthem is just a bit noisy really. All very pleasant, but hardly Such Great Heights or We Will Become Silhouettes, and not even really a worthy trio to close the album.
The tenth anniversary special edition of Give Up also gets you a bonus disc, which is a slightly hit-or-miss collection, but includes some great b-sides and remixes, so is definitely worthwhile. Plus, as I mentioned before, the sound quality is infinitely better than the original, so if you’re only discovering The Postal Service for the first time now, this is definitely the version you should be hearing.
You can still find the double disc reissue of Give Up at all major retailers, such as here.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor‘s current album Wanderlust is available now (we previewed it here) and the new single Love is a Camera, released this week, is absolutely great, as you will see if you press play below (admittedly it does go a bit weird at the end).
Here are the top singles this week:
And the top albums:
From humble beginnings in a telephone box near Liverpool, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, or OMD, quickly rose to become one of the most important acts in the world of electronic pop music. A brief period of intense creativity followed, culminating with the Kraftwerk-inspired Dazzle Ships (1983), followed by an extended downtime.
Most of their eponymous debut album (1980), then Enola Gay, the enormous hit single, the 1991 comeback Sailing on the Seven Seas, and actually not a huge amount else (but that shouldn’t diminish the importance of those key moments!)
Start with their 2008 compilation Messages – Greatest Hits, which contains most of the songs you’ll remember from your childhood. It misses their newer material, but has pretty much everything you could ever want from the early years.
Start with their exceptional debut Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark to hear how it all began, and then try their most consistent album Architecture and Morality (1981). Next, roll forward to 1996’s regularly overlooked Universal, after which you should be ready to make up your own mind.
Anything released between 1984 and 1989, as beginners won’t find much worth listening to there. The comeback albums History of Modern (2010) and English Electric (2013) are variable, and should probably be saved until you’ve heard everything else.
In an era of largely awful albums, So in Love from Crush (1985) is great, as is the 1991 b-side Sugar Tax, which confusingly doesn’t appear on the album of the same name. From the newer releases, The Future, The Past, and Forever After from History of Modern is probably the best.
Music for stowaways 