Merry Christmas everyone! It's 7" time again on Music Review and this week we're going back to 1983.
I don't love The Police. They have a few songs that I think are alright but on the whole I'm not particularly interested in them. One of the things I have a problem with is their pretentious titles - try doing a quiz and having to remember how to say or spell some of these:
b/w The Police - Once Upon A Daydream 🟡
There's something weird about how this one sounds, as if part of it is being played backwards or slowed down. The lyrics are intense - something about a man disapproving of Sting dating his daughter so he attacks her, then Sting shoots him? And yet, the vocal delivery is detached and without any passion at all. I was really worried that the 'once upon a daydream' line that's repeated throughout was going to get stuck in my head but thankfully a few hours later I've forgotten how it goes. This is better than the a-side but I still don't want to hear it again.
#612 - Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock 🟣
1983 was the 25th anniversary of Jailhouse Rock being released and becoming the first single ever to reach #1 in the UK on the week of its release, so this picture disc has been put out to celebrate. It's hard for me to find anything to say about Jailhouse Rock aside from that it's a classic. I usually write these as I listen to the song but with this one I couldn't help but dance rather than critique, because there's nothing to criticise!
b/w Elvis Presley - The Elvis Medley 🟡
The b-side of the picture disc is covered in photos of Elvis from throughout his career, including a big centre photo of Vegas Elvis in his white jumpsuit. The medley opens with Jailhouse Rock but with a dance beat underneath, leading me to think this was going to be something akin to Jive Bunny. That didn't happen and I was led into a verse of Teddy Bear, into Hound Dog, into Don't Be Cruel, into Burning Love, the last of which was a particularly bad transition. While these are all great songs, the clips we get in this medley are way too short which makes it feel like a little Elvis sampler rather than a medley you'd want to stick on the turntable at a party. We end on Suspicious Minds which is a much slower song than the others, so we get a lot more of it - verse, chorus, and the slower still middle 8. Ending on that slow bit is a really disappointing finish, considering all the excitement of the earlier rock'n'roll songs. It feels less like a celebration and more like a retrospective showing the decline of Elvis. The songs themselves rate highly and I'm sure I'll come across most, if not all, of the other songs in this medley eventually, but they don't sound good thrown together like this. A good idea, badly executed.
#613 - Siouxsie and the Banshees - Dear Prudence 🎀
I love everything about this, starting with the artwork - it hints at the meeting of goth and flower-child that we hear in the song with the band's Mackintosh font logo, pink swirls and old portrait photo. Dear Prudence was my intro to the Banshees when I saw a performance on an old episode of TOTP2 and I prefer this version to the Beatles' original. It's psychedelic but doesn't feel like a pastiche of that era, and it makes me want to twirl around in a field of flowers until I'm too dizzy to stand up. There's great vocal echoes and back-up all coming from Siouxsie who is showing here that even though she was a punk rocker, she still has love for what came before the Pistols.
b/w Tattoo 🔵
Despite the title, I didn't expect this to open with the sort of drumming you might hear at a military tattoo. This record has a spooky, tribal sound to it. It's low-key, with Siouxsie keeping her voice low and quiet all the way through, the whole song staying at the same pace and pitch. I wondered whether it was going to be one of those that's subdued up to a point then breaks into a yell, but it never does. It's kind of like Synchronicity II in that nothing much happens in the song, but Siouxsie's performance makes this interesting and haunting.
#614 Pretenders - 2000 Miles 🔵
It's appropriate that we stumble upon a Christmas song when I'm writing this days before the event. The sleeve for this record is very tacky with an alien spaceship flying over a winter scene, making it look like the Pretenders recorded this for the 1983 Christmas Smash mashed potato advert. The song opens with a fade in to the lovely guitar part and sounds really pretty. I've always thought that Chrissie's delivery of the first line 'he's gone' sounds strangled and way out of tune but once we get past that line she sounds great. It's a good 'blue Christmas' song that I don't object to hearing on the radio at this time of year, or any other time.
b/w Fast Or Slow, The Law's The Law 🟡
This sounds like the kind of song that would be included on one of those CD compilations of music for driving. The vibe is a cross between Tom Petty and The Police but not quite as good as either. I think the problem is that Chrissie doesn't sing this one (it's performed by one of her male bandmates) so it doesn't have her great voice to propel the song to an above-average place. I zoned out while listening to it so while it was fine, I don't plan on spinning it again.
#615 The Style Council - Speak Like A Child 🟡
A simple sleeve, with a bit of pseudo-intellectual rambling on the back. I had high hopes for this, which is the first Style Council single, but I left disappointed. It's catchy, shiny 80s pop music but not memorable at all.
b/w The Style Council - Party Chambers 🟡
Again, this sounds very of-its-time. Both of these songs lack the political edge that I associate with The Style Council; they're just catchy, vaguely alternative/new wavey pop songs. This one was a synthy solo part that I assumed would be followed by a final chorus but instead it just kept going and going for a ridiculously long time before eventually fading out.
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