Ah, yep, the first album really is something, especially re: Sex Dwarf, Tainted Love, Seedy Films. I'm not sure that it sounds particularly modern, except in comparison with things that are obviously imitating it a bit, eg. Ladytron, Miss Kitten etc. I think it probably does shine compared to a lot of new electro-clash, as do a lot of these early eighties synth-pop albums, because to my mind electro-clash has got hold of the wrong end of the stick a bit - these synth-pop things were never really about the coldness/ harshness of the synths + vocal delivery, really rather being about a juxtaposition of sterile perfect synths and somewhat flawed (emotional) human vocals. See Soft Cell in particular, also OMD or Japan. On the other hand, check out John Foxx's brilliant Metamatic for that ideal combination of deadpan cold vocals and harsh synth lines.
in terms of perfecly nailing this fairly terrible age.
Terrible age?! Pah! Maybe post-86 when synths became cheap and digital (meaning tunes became indulgent rather than sparing with them), and Stock, Aitken & Waterman arrived on the scene. But I reckon there's a lot of greatness in that era too, albeit tainted with a chronic un-trendiness that will probably never go away.
Now I do love my eighties synth-pop and new romantic (especially some of the stuff that hasn't become trendy in recent years, compare and contrast reputations of Depeche Mode and A Flock of Seagulls), but a lot of the groups do seem to suffer from the same problem - great first album, stacks of awful follow-ups. In my mind Depeche Mode never wrote another half decent album after Speak and Spell, and neither did Soft Cell after Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. And I should know, I'm a bit of a completist, I keep giving Marc Almond a second, third, tenth chance, solo albums and spin-offs. And I keep being disappointed. For me the edge just vanishes after Erotic Cabaret. |
