A friend recently asked to raid my iTunes collection in search of some 80s choice cuts to play at a party. I discovered to my horror that:-
I'm sure that at one stage I have owned Mind Bomb. I'm very familiar with it. I'm thinking that it might have been stolen by a thief. Listening to it recently, I'm struck by how it isn't quite as good as I remembered. Certainly not as good as Dusk, the follow-up.
Level 42 on the other hand is something that I returned to with some trepidation. I remember liking them in the mid 80s, around the time of True Colours. I also remember finding them increasingly irritating as they released nauseous albums like Running In The Family. Eventually, they released a single callled Tracie, and I vowed never to listen to them again. Which might account for my never buying any Level 42 in the digital age.
So, I bought True Colours and World Machine. True Colours is probably the better of the two albums, but I don't think I'll be returning to them for, oh, maybe another 20 years. When I'm 57! One curiosity is the demo tracks at the end of True Colours, which appear to be the final recordings, aside from the vocal tracks. Instead of the proper vocal tracks, Mark King (and his gerbil-voiced sidekick Mike Lindup) sing a strange esperanto guide vocal of dum-de-dum-nah-naaahnaaa-de-doobie-doo gibberish. But, it is all very professionally recorded gibberish, nicely doubletracked with harmony backing vocals (also singing absolute gibberish). I was quite amused that they went to such lengths to avoid writing the lyrics. I think that their habit was to get the guitarist to write the lyrics, and he was either very lazy, or perhaps he enjoyed King and Lindup humiliaring themselves singing dum-de-dum vocals. Anyway, if you want a giggle, go and listen to track 13 of the re-issued True Colours, which is called “De De Derrr numma numma vuddyjaaahba”.
On a more reliable 80s note, two long-deleted, highly underrated classic albums have recently been re-released:-
* The Circle and The Square by Red Box
* Sue by Frazier Chorus
I still do not own anything by Swing Out Sister.
Posted by nikn