teabowl

Stars

Simply Red. East/West Records 1991, Audio CD, $5.00

British soul pop at its finest. Mick Hucknall came from a reggae and soul perspective, but was really always a crooner first. This is an incredibly strong collection of songs, and it’s still puzzling to me why this never took off more in North America. I loved this when I was 21; it’s still a very, very strong album whose loose, 70s soul stylings and Beatles-esque harmonies have held up well. And it was a record that took the world by storm - at least the UK, Europe, Australia, South Africa… in England, it was the album of the year in 1991 and spent something like 20 weeks at the top of the charts. This incarnation of Simply Red featured Gota on drums - a very talented Japanese jazz/fusion/house drummer and producer who would later released a number of interesting instrumental discs. In a way, this fit well into the developing nexus of sound that was springing up in England around this time… pop musicians were being influenced by the nascent dance scene, and this CD is somewhat of a precursor to Emergency on Planet Earth and The Return of the Space Cowboy by Jamiroquai which came out a few years later - and also had virtually no success at all in North America.

Upstairs at Eric’s

Yaz. Emd Int’l 2008, Audio CD, $12.79

What powerful music this was, and remains. Vince Clarke, the original composer/arranger behind Depeche Mode, teams up with blue-eyed soul singer Alison Moyet, and together they create some of the most memorable, path-breaking electronic pop music ever recorded. What makes this so powerful is that it’s two consummate professionals fully bringing themselves to this project - each contributing powerful material, performing as equals. Clarke’s arrangements are flawless and brilliant throughout; perfectly minimalist, hard and shiny electronica that makes the absolute most of the technology at his disposal in 1982. His isn’t an accidental genius - in the sense that we might only recognize it today, since these analogue synth sounds have become so popular once again - but someone completely in charge of both music and technology. His arrangements are the pinnacle of economy and simplicity - just enough, never too much. Moyet’s voice is an instrument of power, clarity and beauty. ‘Only You,’ ‘Midnight’ and ‘In My Room’ ought to be heard by everybody who has even a passing love of pop music. This brand new remaster casts it all in a sheen of extra clarity.

The Visitors

ABBA. Polydor / Umgd 2001, Audio CD, $5.42

I’ve had a 26-year love affair with this album. This was one of the first records I bought with my own money. I was 11 or 12 when it came out. ABBA was accessible, wonderfully well-produced, very very catchy yet musically complex pop. In a way, perhaps the last 2 or 3 ABBA albums are a good example or the ‘autumn years’ of complex pop.

They occupy a point in time before music like this became associated primarily with show tunes, gay people and retro disco parties, but after studio technology was audibly a hurdle to be overcome. Andersson and Ulvaeus were masters of composition, arrangement and studio technology. For me, it’s with ABBA’s work after the mid-1970s (and perhaps Fleetwood Mac’s work from the same era) that the limitations of studio technology become truly inaudible for the first time.

I have marveled at different things related to The Visitors at different times. As a kid, the melodies and harmonies burned themselves into my brain. This is music I’ll never forget, like riding a bike or swimming. Today, I can appreciate the timeless nature of the balanced arrangements and production values, especially since I now understand how much work it must have been - back then - to achieve something that sounds so effortless. I can also appreciate the songcraft better today: Andersson & Ulvaeus, like Lennon/McCartney, wrote great songs even when they were tossing off album filler tracks. And the lyrics! Everything rhymes! This is almost completely unheard of in popular music today, where cadence and rhythmic delivery compensate for a complete absence of rhyme. The rhyming bit is particularly impressive for two Swedish guys.

The women’s voices are also as wondrous today as they were back then. They bring great clarity and simplicity to these songs; nothing is over-sung or over-emoted. It’s just sung, beautifully, in musically dense arrangements, with lots and lots and lots of overdubbed backing vocals. The backing vocals themselves are interesting, because they employ elements more typical to choral singing (canons, etc.). Choruses are often underpinned by backing vocals that use the same lyrics, slightly changed or syncopated; this is something that wasn’t done much after the Beach Boys’ heyday.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t comment on the musicianship. In a way, it goes without saying that ABBA’s Swedish studio band was an ace team of professionals - ABBA was, after all, the world’s biggest-selling pop band at the time, true superstars deserving of a killer backing band. Yet I still marvel at Ola Brunkert’s and Per Lindvall’s precise, groovy drumming and Rutger Gunnarsson’s rumbling, melodic bass; neither of these have lost any of their original impact in the 26 years since I first heard them.

Most remastered editions of this record contain ‘The day before you came,’ one of three post-The Visitors singles that were ABBA’s final releases. ‘The day before you came’ is possibly one of the most melancholy pop songs ever written. I can see direct lines from it to the Pet Shop Boys’ ’story songs’ on Actually five years later.

The Visitors will always be in my personal Top 10, I think. I don’t care if that’s cool or not… and I’m not saying that to be provocative or retro :)

Reasonable critical review here. Complete misunderstanding and misinterpretation by Rolling Stone here (perhaps an indication that North Americans never completely ‘got’ ABBA? :)