Indie Blue-Eyed Soul
One of the trends to emerge when the dust of the punk explosion had settled at the start of the 80s was a new appreciation of classicism in pop and soul music, and for a while pasty white boys interviewed by the NME were just as likely to reference "What's Going On?" as they were the first Velvet Underground album.
Scritti Politti were the first group to make the leap from shabby indie band to glam Blue Eyed Soulsters with their 1981 single "The Sweetest Girl" which caused a bit of a stir at the time because there wasn't a scratchy guitar or jerky, angular beat to be found anywhere on it and it sounded - gasp! - really pretty. A record like that coming out on Rough Trade was a revolutionary act back then. The follow-up "Faithless" doesn't have much in the way of a solid tune but I've always loved its dreamy textures (especially the vocoder), it's like a lost track from Bowie's "Young Americans" album. Even after all these years I've never been able to figure out what the hell this song is about though ("I'm a hetero genius" sounds great, whatever it means), lead singer Green was always blathering on about Marxism and Post Modernism and Deconstructionism but I've never felt the need to read the accompanying dissertation to enjoy this gorgeous record. This and other soft and pillowy pop-soul gems are on their classic 1982 album Songs To Remember which I think every home should have a copy of.
Liverpool group Wah! were another band of ragged indie rockers who embraced their inner Marvin Gayes (at least for a couple of singles). Soul seemed a natural arena for their mouth almighty lead singer Pete Wylie who wore his heart on his sleeve and always went for the big emotional gesture. Their 1983 single "Hope (I'd Wish You'd Believe Me)" is a heavenly epic that sounds like The Clash trying to sound like The Delfonics. It's probably too long at 6:30 but it sounds beautiful and you get swept along by the ballroom grandeur of it. All the winding career twists and turns of Wylie and Wah! in their various incarnations (Wah! Heat, The Mighty Wah!, Shambeko Say Wah!) are collected on The Handy Wah! Whole which contains some of the most exhilarating post-punk rock and pop (and soul!) ever recorded.
[Download]
Faithless - Scritti Politti
Hope (I Wish You'd Believe Me) - Wah!
4 Comments:
Fazakerly Lee! I almost posted Wah's 'The Story Of The Blues' yesterday (but somehow went off on a peculiar tangent with Hazel O'Connor!).
Not to overstate it Pete Wylie- style, but there's a rousing spectre of spector swarming boisterously down the headphones wearing a big fur coat and a cheeky grin.
Very interesting work here from them both. I could see John at the Tofu Hut very much liking this Scritti Politti track--puts me in mind of Prince for a few reasons.
I can't seem to download this file, has it been taken off?? Shame, I really wanted to hear it.
Love the site BTW.
Sorry, I'm getting near my bandwidth limit for the month so I deleted the files a couple of days earlier than usual.
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