80’s

Way Back Wednesdays: Hamid Al Shaeri – ‘Ayonha’

April 13, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Hamid Al-Shaeri in a recent photoshoot to promote the ‘SLAM Years’ LP (2022) (Photo via KCRW.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and the time has come for us to go retro for another new weekly entry of ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ for yet another daily track on the blog, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Egypt’s leading representative of Arabic Pop (A genre that sounds like westernized synthesizer pop music) is Hamid Al-Shaeri, a key artist for the SLAM! label throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. Often considered to be the key pioneer of Al Jeel music, this Libyan-Egyptian singer, songwriter and producer is acclaimed by critics for providing a homegrown alternative to foreign Pop artists, both as a solo musician and for his production and writing work for other artists. His impact also extends to the wider popular culture of his native country, following his recent appearance as a guest judge on an Egyptian alternative to the ‘Got Talent’ franchise of TV talent shows. In 2011, he also condemned the actions of Muammar Gadaffi – his native country’s then-ruler – against the Libyan people and he issued a call for Egypt to support them. On 25th February, ‘Habibi Funk 018: The SLAM! Years (1983 – 1988)’, was released. His first single – ‘Ayonha’ – roughly translates to the title of ‘Her Eyes’ in English and it still holds a special heart of the Habibi Funk label’s team. They say, “If you were to ask us for a defining Habibi Funk track, there are a few that come to mind. However, none are as widely connected with us at this point as Hamid El Shaeri’s ‘Ayonha”, in a press release. Although it was not as commercially successful as the popularity of his later work that ran into the 00’s, Egyptian music journalist Malak Makar considers the era as a precursor to El Shaeri’s Al Jeel style than representative of genre. In 2017, Pitchfork’s Andy Beta also described his London-produced cut ‘Ayonha’ as “the most arresting track” on Habibi Funk’s seventh release.

The recent compilation is dedicated to Hamid El Shaeri’s work for the SLAM! label throughout the times, and the idea for the project came about when Habibi Funk met Hamid El Shaeri through singer Youssra El Hawary in 2016 at his office and rehearsal space in the outskirts of Cairo. They insisted on collaborating with him after hearing his songs from the early 1980’s, composed at a time where he had just left Libya to pursue his career in Egypt via a detour in London, where he also recorded his first album. The label recalls, “He liked the idea of an effort to amplify his early works again, which, when originally released, were far from an economic success. While he was down to assist with an interview and his blessing for the project he also told us that for any license we needed to speak with the original label SLAM! who released these songs, still held the rights and also remained in business over the decades though they didn’t actively release any new music”, in a press statement. ‘Ayonha’ is an upbeat and whimsical offering that wouldn’t sound out of place on morning AM radio in California, as the cheerful melodies and the easy-going vibe, combined with the abundance of glistening Synths and the airy harmonies which convey a radiant mood, captures a burgeoning interest in wistful production and exuberant, glitzy Pop sounds for El Shaeri. The lyrics are just as generally glowing in atmosphere, as they roughly translate to lines like “Take me in your hands/Take me to a moon in the clouds” and “Give the life which has gone and which I lost back to me, let me forget the sadness and the wounds, and years of loss and suffering” in English, according to the lyricstranslate.com website. The sound is not excessively Pop-based, but there’s a generally upbeat feel evoked by the opening 60’s-leaning Strings and the percussive acoustic lead guitar melody. Ultimately, this is a crucial encapsulation of the career of a top European star. While he may be relatively unknown to music lovers in the West and there was an initially underwhelming reaction to his early work at first, it hasn’t aged terribly at all and it can lift your spirits on a day where your mind is somewhere else. Buoyant spectacle that became popular across generations in his native market.

Pictured: Cover Art for ‘The SLAM! Years: 1983 – 1988 (Habibi Funk 018)’ (Compilation LP/Album) (Released on February 25th, 2022) (via Habibi Funk Records)

That brings me to the end of yet another daily track on the blog. Thank you for checking out my latest post and showing me your support today, and I hope that you found it interesting. As my duty demands, I will be back tomorrow to highlight some refreshing new music by an emerging experimental electronic music artist who utilizes 90’s Acid House sounds and UKG influences to the best of her abilities, and she has a Malaysian and Irish heritage. Her debut EP, ‘Bluff’, is out now via PLATOON.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Pat Benatar – ‘Love Is A Battlefield’

February 23, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Pat Benatar performing with Neil Girado in New York (2012) (Photo via Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke – and it’s time for you to sharpen your sword and pick your poison for yet another daily track on the blog, as we revive one of the most combative Synth-Pop hits of the 80’s for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, given that it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music each day! ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ and ‘Heartbreaker’ were just two of the biggest hits that New York-born 80’s singer Pat Benatar – who had eight consecutive Platinum-certified albums over in Canada – graced our ears with throughout the decade. However, none of the four-time Grammy winner’s hits struck quite the chord that 1983’s ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ had done with mainstream audiences and, although I often veer into the Alternative side of music for most of my musical musings, it is still important for us to remember that some of the artists that we all like have enjoyed commercial success. Often producing her music with guitarist Neil Giraldo, who also became her husband in the process, Benatar has had 15 top 40 singles on the US Billboard charts and she has sold a reported figure of over 35 million albums worldwide. ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ represented her move from melodramatic rock ballads to more melodic pop, and, even now, it is often still used to represent the sound of the 80’s, having been used recently in the hugely popular TV series ‘Stranger Things’. Memorable for its music video, which saw Benatar playing a rebellious young girl who runs away from home, the single was ranked at #30 of VHS’ list of the 100 Greatest Hits Of The 80’s and it reached the #1 spot in several territories, including Australia and The Netherlands, as well as the Rock Tracks Chart in the US, shortly following release. Let’s revisit it below.

Written by Holly Knight and Mike Chapman, ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ was initially meant to be a mid-tempo ballad, but Benatar was the only one to really see potential in the track because the studio executives had originally disliked it. After a little bit of time monkeying around with husband/producer Neil Giraldo on the drum machines in the studio, they created the more electronic sound of the finished piece. You can still hear that the guitars are present, but it put a unique spin on rock ‘n’ roll music at the time and it was quite a large switch in sound for Benatar to make back then. Given that it went straight to #5 on the US Billboard Chart, however, it’s fair to say that her risk paid off nicely. Moreover, the lyrics are kept to the point with a self-explanatory nature, as the lead character feels scorned and scarred by love. Benatar keeps her vocal performance feeling dynamic, with a spoken opening refrain that battles with her cleaner verse, and some twisting effects in the chorus. Hook-based lyrics like “We are strong/No one can tell us we’re wrong/Searching our hearts for so long” prove that Benatar is capable of producing some decent, catchy lyrics. The soundscape consistently shifts, with the refrain of “You’re begging me to go/Then making me stay” leading the slower refrain in the bridge that keeps the emotive vulnerability of a ballad intact. You can definitely hear that it was originally going to be a ballad and see where the significant rewrites were made when you know the backstory, but that background also clearly has something to do with what makes the lyrics so punchy and what makes the instrumentation feel so strong. Going from slow and somber to angry and melodic, ‘Love Is A Battlefield’ was simply a great Pop song from the 80’s and the Synths suit her vocals in place of the heavy rock influences of her earlier work, and so it is no wonder that it became one of the 80’s most cherished recordings.

Pictured: Pat Benatar in a PR photoshoot for ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ (1979) (Photo via V13.net/Chrysallis)

That’s all for now! Thank you for enjoying another swift blast from the past with me, and I’ll be back tomorrow to take you through some more brand new music. My next pick comes from an Alternative Folk singer-songwriter from New Zealand who was spotted by Anika Moa, another Folk-Pop singer-songwriter from New Zealand, who asked her to support her that night after finding her busking outside of the venue that she was going to play at. She has since released music on 4AD, Spunk and Flying Nun, and her fourth full-length LP – ‘Warm Chris’ – is set for its release on March 25th, 2022.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Natasha – ‘I Can’t Hold On’

February 2, 2022 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Natasha England in a PR photoshoot for a Penny Black Music interview (2018) (Photo via Facebook.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to take a quick detour from recent releases into my time machine for a throwback instead for ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ as we revisit some of the seminal sounds of the past for yet another daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If you type ‘Natasha Pop Singer’ into your favourite search engine on the internet, you’re likely to only mostly find photos and interviews regarding Natasha Bedingfield from the 2000’s. However, ‘Natasha’ was also the name of a Scottish pop singer who rose to prominence during the 1980’s with recordings like ‘Iko Iko’, a top ten hit in the UK. Known fully as Natasha England, she developed a career in the music industry after winning a dance competition as she worked behind the management chair of high-profile acts like David Bowie, Marc Bolan and Rod Stewart. She also set up the Towerbell record label with Bob England – her ex-husband – which broke names like The Commodores and The Average White Band into relevancy. She decided to work on animal rights issues after leaving the industry behind in the late-80’s, but she briefly fronted a band called ‘Why’ in the early 1990’s, before re-launching her career in the late-2000’s following her diagnosis with breast cancer. Recent releases have included a 2013 cover of T-Rex’s ‘Get It On’ and a collaboration with experimental producer, Robert Logan, known as ‘Album Deeper Into Reality’ that was released in 2010. A new album – ‘Somehow’ – was also made available in 2018. 1982’s ‘Captured’ – meanwhile – is considered by the folk at Cherry Red Records to be one of the most underrated albums of all time. Featuring a mixture of covers and self-penned original material, it not only featured her Top Of The Pops-worthy hit of ‘Iko Iko’, but also the underlooked anthem ‘I Can’t Hold On’, which is considered to be one of the earliest examples of, what would later become more known and hammered to crowds as later in the 80’s – Synth-Pop. Let’s revisit it.

In a similar vein to her fellow 80’s pop star Rick Astley, Natasha England has also enjoyed a commercial career resurgence during the last decade or so, and that is because her most well-known 80’s single ‘Iko Iko’, of course, was licensed by Platform Records to make a prominent sync appearance during the soundtrack of ‘Un Boss In Salotto’, which was the highest-grossing Italian film of 2014 at the box office. Back to the task at hand, we start off ‘I Can’t Hold On’ with a boisterous guitar riff and an immediate Synth riff that echoes Blondie and Eurythmics to my ears, before Natasha delivers the opening refrain of “I saw you standing there, that look was in your eyes/I’ve heard from other girls that you were quite a guy” with a slightly sassy but sensual vibe that mixes vulnerability and bitterness rather tidily. The chorus sees the funk-laden rhythm guitar melodies and the drum machine work-out reach a full crescendo, with the hooks of “Tonight, this feeling’s getting stronger” and “Tonight, I can’t hold on much longer” as our lead narrator takes a fall and enters a relationship that she fears is going to become toxic out of her lust and desire, with the swelling Synths and the sharp Drum beats ramping off of their brisk pace to add a darker underlayer to the vocals. Natasha keeps everything concise as to not overstay her welcome, and it is partly the infectious guitar riff of the track that really adds a lot of personality to it as it creates an atmospheric sheen for her lyrics while the rest of the instrumentation is upbeat and more alike to Prince or Blondie. It definitely sounds like a product of it’s time in one respect, but it was an important pre-cursor for the later acts who would achieve commercial success with a similar template. While it is not greatly original in retrospect, Natasha was simply one of the first to make it work in the way it does. A catchy, well-produced callback to the simpler times of the 1980’s.

Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘Captured’ (LP) (Released In 1982) (via Metronome Records/Towerbell Records)

That’s all for now! Thank you very much for checking out the post that I have just written for your perusal today, and I hope that you join me for another music-related musing on the site tomorrow. We will be looking at an entirely new band from Melbourne, Australia who are known for their Gothic Lo-Fi imagery and they have experienced a 267 day-long Lockdown there. They were initially named Rosary and their debut EP out now via Dalliance was produced with Floodlights’ Archie Shannon.

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Countdown To Christmas 2021: Max Headroom – ‘Merry Christmas Santa Claus (You’re A Lovely Guy)’

December 23, 2021 — Leave a comment
Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Merry Christmas Santa Claus (You’re A Lovely Guy)’ (1986) (via Chrysalis Records)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time to leave a place in your front drive for Santa Claus (I know him!) to park his sleigh in the early hours of tomorrow morning after reading about your daily track on the blog, given that it has always been my day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day! It is pretty tricky for me to describe what Max Headroom truly is, since I was not born at the time and it sounds like an awkward concept to wrap your reindeer’s ears around in the first place, but ‘Merry Christmas Santa Claus (You’re A Lovely Guy)’ is certainly a candidate for being the most bizzare track that has ever been covered on the blog. To the greatest of my understanding, Max is not an artist at all and is, in fact, a character of artificial intelligence portrayed by comedian Matt Frewer in prosthetic make-up and aided by some simplistic editing trickery, that had a cult TV show in the 1980’s. Created by the trio of George Stone, Annabel Jankel and Ricky Morton, Max was known for his wit, harsh lighting and pitch-shifting voice – and he was called “the first computer generated TV personality”. He had his own television series in 1984 that aired on Channel 4 in the UK, but the idea came from a British short sci-fi film – ‘Max Headroom: 20 Minutes In The Future’ – that found popularity after being shown on Channel 4, which is set in a futuristic dystopia that is ruled by a network of television channels. The idea was originally to create a series of five-minute episodes to tell his origin story, but the producers realized that this was impractical from a viewership standpoint, and commissioned an 80-minute TV movie instead. Although a US version of the show was made, it was never repeated and only fourteen episodes of the pretty faithful remake aired on NBC were ever made – and all of this great info comes from clivebanks.co.uk online. There was a little-known Christmas special, however. I have read another story that the special was terrible, however, and even cameos from big then-contemporary stars like Tina Turner or Robin Williams failed to save it’s quality. The finale was a Christmas song that was released as a single, which failed to chart, with a Country-influenced B-side of ‘Gimme Shades’, and a crop of YouTube channels have restored the video from MTV 2 to decent audio/video quality. Let’s boot him up.

Forever Young gives us context with, “1986 was a big year for Max (and Matt Frewer) – they already scored an international hit with “Paranoimia” (with The Art Of Noise), there was a British cult TV show called ‘The Max Headroom Show’ in its third and final season, and they were on the verge of an American drama series, Max Headroom, which started in the spring of 1987 – and Coca-Cola commercials somewhere in-between. Not long after the success of “Paranoimia”, Max Headroom did a holiday special in the UK, ‘Max Headroom’s Giant Christmas Turkey’, and from that special, a limited edition 7″ holiday single was commissioned and then released on Chrysalis Records” on their website. Forever Young states that the producers thought it was a good idea to have Max perform several jolly ballads throughout the episode, and it gradually built into this climactic finale for the special and, safe to say, it unfortunately did not take the world by storm. Lyrically, Headroom jolts through different contexts of Christmas, such as recalling the night that baby Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem, with some passionate Jingle Bells that build momentum as we transition to a snowy winter exterior, where the Southwark Gospel Choir join him for a final sing-along of the chorus. The main bulk of the track revolves around Father Christmas being a selfless and underappreciated soul, and Headroom continues to make light of all the usual holiday TV special tropes with his pitch-shifting voice and the structure of the video performance. While the vocals range from horrible to slightly creepy to wholly deranged, it is a fun four minutes to spend a bit of time from your day with, and I think that I enjoyed it purely because of how niche and obscure it is, as well as how strange and peculiar the music was. A less remembered alternative Christmas anthem that was crafted in the same ilk as Bo Selecta’s ‘Proper Chrimbo’ or South Park’s ‘Mr. Hanky The Christmas Poo’, this fluttering rendition of ‘Merry Christmas Santa Claus (You’re A Lovely Guy)’ takes things to weird proceedings and it makes you feel quite cheerful despite its inherent dreadfulness. So yeah. This exists…

Pictured: Terry Wogan interviews Max Headroom on a television show (August 1985) (Photo via BBC Archive)

That’s all for now and thank you a lot for sparing a moment with me on the blog for Christmas Eve. It’ll probably be a short and sweet one tomorrow as it is Christmas Day, but I must fulfill my mission of writing up about a different piece of music every day! I have crowd-pleasing Desert Rock lined up for you tomorrow as we shift our focus towards a brilliant Alternative Rock anthem from popular Las Vegas natives who headlined Glastonbury, in 2019, on the main stage on Saturday on that weekend.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – “The Message”

October 6, 2021 — Leave a comment
  • Pictured: Cover Artwork for ‘The Message’ (LP) (Released in October, 1992) (via Sugar Hill Records)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and you have got your ears tuned in for yet another daily track on the blog, which suits me because it’s always been my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! This is ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ where we revisit the seminal sounds of the past that have been influential for those of the present, and ‘The Message’ – released in 1982 by the New York 5-piece Hip-Hop band Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – certainly fits that bill. As noted in the lyrics, ‘The Message’ was initially written as a reaction to the New York City Transit Strike of 1980 as a more broad examination of inner-class poverty and social injustice. Early 80’s Hip-Hop music was typically characterized as being aimless and too Pop-oriented, but the success of ‘The Message’ was paramount for groups like Public Enemy and KRS-One, and it marked the turning point for Rap music to explore serious content and the Conscious Hip-Hop sub-genre would soon be developed in response by more credible Hip-Hop songwriters than those who were there before. ‘The Message’ went straight to the #8 spot on the UK Singles Chart and it reached #2 in New Zealand, as well as reaching #4 on the US Billboard Hot Black Singles Chart. This is easily one of the most recognizable Hip-Hop recordings of the 1980’s, but its popularity extends beyond popular culture as well. For example, it has been featured in some academic texts such as ‘The Norton Anthology Of African American Literature’, published by Henry Louis Gates Jr. in 1996. Give it a spin below.

Released as the third and final single from the album of the same name by Sugar Hill Records in 1982, ‘The Message’ was a launching ramp for the bragging and boasting of the earlier Hip-Hop sounds to gain more of a soul, and its widespread success led to the band getting inducted into the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007. Also, ‘The Message’ was selected by the Library Of Congress to be added to The National Recording Registry for its preservation in 2002. A driving force behind the social commentary of Hip-Hop’s most significant releases, ‘The Message’ lyrically boasts some unflinching observations of lower working class perils like “It’s like a Jungle sometimes/It makes me wonder how I keep from going under” in the hard-boiled chorus, and my favourite verse contains the sequence of “A child is born with no state of mind, Blind to the ways of mankind/God is smiling on you, but he’s frowning too/Because God only knows what you’ll go through” which has also been named as Q-Tip’s favourite rap verse of all time. That verse really steers the sound away from a braggadocio party anthem style and towards a more philosophical nature instead. The instrumentation takes its cues from the Psych-Funk of George Clinton’s bands like Funkadelic and Parliament. The groovy guitar licks and the staccato Synths changed the content of Hip-Hop music forever, and the backdrop is simply catchy. It really helps to make the track feel more memorable on the whole, and Melle Mel mocks the Hip-Hop culture of old by noting “But then you wind up dropping out of high school” after he lists the likes of pickpockets and smugglers as potential role models. Overall, ‘The Message’ had an undeniable ability in attracting those who would not typically listen to Hip-Hop as a genre and the importance of the songwriting deserves its recognition as a pioneer of Hip-Hop’s development, and the themes are all topped off by the end of the video where police stress towards black people becomes present, as the band get arrested for no discernible reason in a brutal end skit. ‘The Message’ not only made history in terms of it’s content, but it was a genuinely great Hip-Hop track.

  • Pictured: ‘Grandmaster Flash’ Joseph Saddler, ‘Keef Cowboy’ (Keith Wiggins), ‘Melle Mel’ Melvin Glover, ‘The Kidd Creole’ Danny Glover, ‘Scorpio’ Eddie Morris & Rahiem (Date n/a) (Photo via Getty Images)

That’s all for now! Thank you for checking out my latest throwback post, and I’ll be back tomorrow as we divert our attention from the socially conscious Hip-Hop of the past to the Pub Rock revivalist sounds of the future, coming from a Melbourne 4-piece whose self-titled debut studio LP won “Best Rock Album” at the ARIA Awards of 2019.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Kim Wilde – “Dancing In The Dark”

September 29, 2021 — Leave a comment
  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Catch As Catch Can’ (LP) (Released on October 24th, 1983) (via RAK Records)

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke, and I’m reporting for my daily duties of typing up another daily track on the blog, because it is always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ has ticked around once again, and so we’re looking back at one of the seminal sounds of the past that has been influential for the present. When you think of Middlesex’s 80’s pop star Kim Wilde, your mind will probably call back to tunes like ‘Kids In America’, ‘Chequered Love’ and ‘Never Trust A Stranger’, and the other multitude of hits that she’s sold over 10 million albums and 20 million singles worth of. However, her third studio album, 1983’s ‘Catch As Catch Can’, marks more of an intriguing outlier in her discography. A key point of transition in her career, Wilde’s ‘Catch As Catch Can’ was regarded as probably her most experimental record to date, mixing up the dark-hued Synth Pop style of previous LP ‘Select’ with the more commercially-oriented Rock feel that has largely characterized her career. Unfortunately, the record was met with a reception of indifference at the time, having suffered from mixed reviews from critics, and it failed to set the cash registers alight very much, only reaching #90 in the UK Albums Charts and the singles had floundered in their chart appeal. However, in more recent decades, the record has garnered more of a ‘best kept secret’ air about it. Kim Wilde supported the record on a second European tour that helped the decline in sales a little bit, and it was finally re-released as a ‘Remastered’ edition by Cherry Red Records as a collectors item in 2009. Another very interesting fact about the record is that it was released just as the CD format was being introduced, and the LP was issued as a CD in Japan, with this release becoming a very sought-after and rare item among Wilde’s fans. These people have been known to fork over more than $100 to nab one of the imported CD copies. ‘Dancing In The Dark’ was the second single to be released from the record and preceded the concept-driven ‘House Of Salome’ ballad. It remains to be her final single to be published by RAK Records, and it reached #67 on the UK Singles Chart, so the single just about scraped the top 75. Give it a spin below.

‘Dancing In The Dark’ was written by Nicky Chinn and Paul Gurvitz, making it only the second track that she did not pen with her typical father and brother combo, and Chic’s Nile Rodgers created a remix of the track for an extended 12″ release. Although it made the top 30 in some European territories, Wilde was disappointed with the reviews and sales for the single and found herself to be unhappy with it, recounting in an interview, “No-one expected that ‘Dancing In The Dark’ would do so badly. Every Monday, I woke up in fear and asked my record company if the record had made the charts yet. They reacted coldly”, entitled ‘Wildelife’ in 2008. To my ears, the limited mainstream appeal is somewhat surprising because it sounds like a contemporary Synth-Pop chart hit of the slightly later 80’s. This has a strong tune, with a driving beat and some intense lyrics about a flirtatious encounter with a stranger on the dancefloor of a club, with lyrics like “I could hear his heartbeat/Pounding in the night” and “His soothing kiss/Was all I desired” to convey the themes with a George Michael-like hint of breathy and romantic tension in her voice. Wilde also goes for a swooping and punchy chorus, with the simple lines of “Sweet romancing/Something’s gonna start” and “We were dancing/Dancing in the dark” being complemented by a harmonic male backing vocal, with some flickering Synth tones and a rhythmic lead vocal from Wilde creating a catchy flow. The instrumentation is met with a cheerful Horn riff, some loud drums and danceable keyboard riffs that don’t sound out of place for the time. On the whole, I wouldn’t say this is a masterpiece. The lyrics are admittedly not very poetic and a little bland at points, and the synth instrumentals are not much more memorable. However, I think the reception of the time was a bit harsh. The more experimental direction of the album – as a body of work in its entirety – gave Wilde a chance to show what she could do beyond her pre-conceived notions. I enjoyed the Wham-esque vocals from Wilde on the track, and the beats are generally catchy. Its not Shakespeare, but it strikes me as something a bit underrated.

  • Pictured: Kim Wilde with Marty Wilde (Her Father) (in August 2020) (Photo via ExpressandStar.com)

Thank you for checking out the blog today, and I’ll be back tomorrow for an in-depth look at a brand new London-based R&B and Neo-Soul songwriter who specializes in “effortlessly blending the sounds of Congolese Rumba, Electronic, R&B and Alt-Pop with her perceptible lyricism” in approach. Her debut EP was self-released last Friday.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Book Of Love – “Book Of Love”

August 25, 2021 — Leave a comment
  • Pictured: Susan Ottaviano (Lead Vocals/Chief Songwriter), Ted Ottaviano (Keyboards/Sampling/Programming/Piano/Melodica/Tubular Bells/Occasional Lead Vocals), Lauren Johnson (Synths) and Jade Lee (Percussion) (1985) (Photo via PostPunkMonk.com)

Good Morning to you! This is Jacob Braybrooke, and this is ‘Way Back Wednesdays’ – the part of the week where we take a good, hard look at the sounds of the past that have become influential to the present, and that fits in with my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Book Of Love were a Synthpop band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who were releasing their own innocent brand of New Wave and sultry Dream-Pop during the height of those genres’ popularity in the 1980’s, and they were later based in New York. Comprised of lead vocalist Susan Ottaviano, keyboardist Ted Ottaviano (bizarrely – of no biological relation to Susan), Synths programmer and other keyboardist Lauren Johnson, and percussionist Jade Lee. The quartet gained exposure in the 80’s as the support act for Depeche Mode on tour in 1985 and 1986, and the band have been praised by the Houston Press as “forward thinking” for lyrics dealing with gender politics and sexual orientation. Book Of Love released four reasonable successful albums before the band decided to move on with their solo projects in 1994, but they scored a massive club hit with ‘Boy Pop’ in 1993, a track that reached the top five of the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play Chart. Their self-titled debut album, released in 1986, was a huge hit with the critics. Four singles were released from the LP, including the title track named after the band, and each of them gained a place on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play and the Hot Dance Singles Sales charts in the US. Let’s give their signature title track a spin below.

The band seemingly didn’t want to become a parody of themselves, and I can understand their decision of gradually getting out of the game when the fangs of the 1990’s bit deep into the neck of sweetness through synthesizers. There was simply limited demand for dreamers in a musical landscape that was dominated by Hip-Hop, Grunge and Dance music, and their final album – 1993’s ‘Lovebubble’ – sold poorly and had little promotion to reflect this. However, most of the band’s members found new success with side projects like The Myrmidons. Book Of Love’s images were notably murky and low-lit, and this could potentially be down to cost-cutting production or simply a reality of printing graphics on their type of cardboard, but it still nicely reflects the slightly Gothic aesthetics that can be seen with an act like Book Of Love, a band who aimed to harness the energy of all the summers expired and the past of children playing freely in the playground for the nostalgic sound of singles like their self-titled signature cut. Built on some simple and strong melodies, ‘Book Of Love’ is a Hypnagogic Pop anthem that becomes more catchy with subsequent listens. Twinkling Keyboard melodies get the child-like atmosohere across, while lyrics like “Pages from my book of love” and “If you should ever happen to leave/I’ll add your book to my lovelorn library” feel poetic and gentle, delivered with a cheerful vocal pitch over the top of forlorn Drum jolts and soulful Synth sequences. The sprawling Horn section and the dreamy use of a Glockenspiel bring an aura of Shoegaze to the table in the later stages, adding some beautiful sounds to the track as it naturally draws to a close. The track’s verses remind me of The National, where strangely ebullient vocals match the slowed quality of the joyous instrumentation. Overall, ‘Book Of Love’ is rather of-its-time, but that time seems to have been an irrepressible one for the band. The band play with simplicity to perfection, and the honesty of their throwback feel to their songs is what puts them over effectively, not affectedly. A bookmark for an essence that could no longer quite be recaptured fully.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Book Of Love’ (Self-Titled LP) (Released on April 1st, 1986) (via Sire Records)

That’s all I’ve got lined up for you today, and thank you for reaching the end of the page with me! As I have already mentioned before, I will be taking a few days away from the blog to celebrate my sister’s wedding. Also, when it really is your day-to-day pleasure to write about a different piece of music every day, it can sometimes feel like a lot of work, so I’m looking forward to resting and refueling. I will see you on Sunday!

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Way Back Wednesdays: Feargal Sharkey – “A Good Heart”

July 14, 2021 — Leave a comment

Let’s see whether this Northern Irish OBE jumped the ‘Shark’ in 1985. New post time!

  • Pictured: Casette Tape of ‘A Good Heart’ (Released in 1985 in UK) (1986 in US) (via Virgin Records)

Good Morning to you! It’s Jacob Braybrooke here, and it’s ‘Way Back Wednesdays’, meaning that we’re diving back into the sounds of the past that have been influential to those of the present, not forgetting that it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! Feargal Sharkey’s ‘A Good Heart’ is a straight-up Pop tune from 1985 that my mother says she used to own on casette tape, which she brought up during an episode of ‘Top Of The Pops 1991’ on BBC Four, although I’ve never listened to the song at all before until now. Sharkey is an OBE, and he is a Nothern Irish singer from Derry who was mostly known for being the lead vocalist of rock band The Undertones, who famously performed ‘Teenage Kicks’, which was late-great BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel’s favourite single of all-time. I believe that he’s much less musically active now, but, in more recent times, he has taken up differing roles in the UK’s commercial music industry, receiving several awards as an advocate and some honours for his charity work in the Arts sector. I caught a recent article which says Feargal Sharkey has been campaigning to preserve the rivers of Cambridgeshire, and that’s my area, and so it really is a small world. Released by Virgin Records as the lead single from his self-titled debut album, ‘A Good Heart’ reached #1 on the UK Singles Chart upon its release. Get a blast from the past below.

A fun fact about Feargal is that he is the chairman of the Amwell Magna Fishery. As a lifelong fly fisherman, Feargal has actively campaigned against the pollution of Chalk Streams, and the regulations of the Water industry which impact the UK’s water resources. He gave the Keynote address at The Rivers Trust Autumn Confererence in 2018, and, in 2010, he appeared on Wired’s list of ‘The Wired 100’ for his contributions to nature at #56. So, you could say that he’s got ‘A Good Heart’ in those respects. The tune itself is probably what you’d expect to see on ‘That’s 80’s’ or an old repeat of ‘Top Of The Pops’ on BBC Four, because it sounds pretty normal for it’s time. Lyrics like “Highest risk of striking out/The risk of getting heart/Still, I have so much to learn” and “My expectations may be high/I blamed it on my youth/Soon enough, I’ve learned the painful truth” get the ideas of trial/error in dating across simply and easily, with a melody that skews towards rougher Country a little bit, with the twangy guitars and the shimmering drums, and upbeat Keyboard melodies that get a Funk influence across a little. Looking back, I would say that the vocals are a bit woeful on this. It’s not that Sharkey is a particularly bad singer, but his strong Derry accent and his roots in classic Punk feel a little jarring or lost on this one. The chorus is mostly done by the backing singers, however, and the arrangement pulls him a few favours. Overall, I reckon he, or his label, was trying a bit too hard to just simply ‘have a hit’ with this one, which doesn’t typically sit very well with me. I think the track is also a little confused in what it wants to be, with the guitar solo in the middle suggesting a Glam-Rock direction, and the happy-go-lucky guitar rhythms indicating some retro Funk. I quite enjoyed my time with it, however. It’s catchy enough, and the different elements of the instrumentation give it decent enough heft to not seem tiresome. The punchy energy carries through to the end, and the chorus is a sweet slice of teenage pop with a Soulful feel. A slight jumble of ideas, but a charming earworm of 80’s Pop.

  • Pictured: Feargal Sharkey reporting to Cambridge City Council (2019) (CambridgeIndependant.co.uk)

There’s your blast from the past! Please feel free to join me again tomorrow as we revert our attention back to some brand new music. Tomorrow’s pick comes to you from a lesser-known Indie Rock band, who have a new album out on Ba Da Bing! The female-fronted group, from Melbourne, once had SXSW’s most-played song of their ‘Morning Show’ in 2019, and they have also recorded a live session for Seattle’s KEXP.

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Way Back Wednesdays: Randy Travis – “Forever and Ever, Amen”

June 30, 2021 — Leave a comment

His son said “Mommy, I’m gonna love you forever and ever, Amen’. Let’s go Way Back!

  • Pictured: Randy Travis with his wife Mary Travis (2020) (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

Good Morning to you! You’re reading the words of Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for me to get typing up for your daily track on the blog, since it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! We’re looking at the sounds of the past that have influenced the present today, and that translates to a scarce Country music appearance from Marshville’s Randy Travis. Travis was a huge star in the 80’s, a pivotal figure in the development of Country music, who had sixteen #1 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs Chart. Very tragically, he suffered a Stroke in 2013 that has left him unable to continue singing, but, in his peak time, Travis branched out into other media as a crossover star, appearing in films like the ‘National Treasure’ series and seven episodes of ‘Touched By An Angel’ on TV. He now owns a star on the Hollywood Hall Of Fame, and, in 2016, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Known as one of the pioneers of the Neo-Traditionalist movement, Travis is highly revered for helping to bring traditional Country music back to mainstream attention. One of his signature tracks is ‘Forever and Ever, Amen’, which sold 5 million copies following it’s release in 1987. Check it out on Vimeo below.

Although Travis’s stroke has severely limited his abilities, since 2017, he’s occasionally been known to add the final ‘Amen’ to live performances or cover versions from other artists, and ‘Forever And Ever, Amen’, remains popular to this day. As recently as February of this year, Ronan Keating and Shania Twain released their own duet version of the classic track for Keating’s eleventh studio album, ‘Twenty Twenty’. It”s impact continues to be felt, then, by it’s romantic and sweet melodies. The vocals find Travis harkening back to his distinctive Baritone vocals that he was known for, where he croons sequences like “As long as old men sit and talk about the weather/As long as old women sit and talk about old men” with his low-pitched harmony. The guitars are the twangiest of twangs, as you would expect, with a melodic rhythm and an upbeat mood that absorbs you deep into the Country genre. Deep to it’s core, the songwriting is about joy in constancy, with platonic verses about loving a woman regardless of changes to their appearance, citing her hair as the main reference, and smooth flirtations where he uses the song itself as back up evidence for reassuring his faithfulness to his wife. The family Wedding scenario of the music video is a picture-esque complement to this. Country music is really not my bread-and-butter pudding by usual standards, and so I think it’s a testament to Travis’s career that he manages to get me quite on-board with this. It’s cheesy and it’s of it’s time, but it’s catchy and uplifting, with lyrics that feel smart and deliver enough substance to click. Overall, it is one of the VERY few tracks that make me interested to explore 80’s Country further.

  • Pictured: Cover Art for “Forever & Always” (LP) (Released on May 4, 1987) (via Warner Bros Records)

That’s all I have for today – but I’ll be thanking you for reading my text forever and ever, amen! Tomorrow, we’re going Electronic, with an in-depth look at one of the strongest IDM album releases of the year so far. The artist has made an appearance on the blog before, and is one of the most important new signings to the highly influential Hyperdub club music label that was founded by Kode9 in 2000, originally as a webzine, before it became a label in 2004.

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Way Back Wednesday: Neil Pye – “Hole In My Shoe”

June 16, 2021 — Leave a comment

All that I have left is the hole in my shoe which is letting in Water. Let’s go Way Back…

  • Pictured: Cover Art for ‘Neil’s Heavy Concept Album’ (LP) Released in 1984) (via WEA International)

Good Morning to you! My name is Jacob Braybrooke, and it’s time for us to get down to business with your daily track on the blog, as always, since it’s my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! This week for ‘Way Back Wednesday’, we’re going to tear up the rule book of seminal sounds for a re-evaluation of ‘Hole In My Shoe’, a novelty comedy Pop track, sung by a sitcom character. This was suggested for the blog by one of my most loyal readers, my mother. ‘Hole In My Shoe’, released in 1984, followed in the footsteps of Benny Hill and Harry Enfield in being a foray into odd music for a British comedian, in this case being Nigel Planer, who is also famous for appearing in several West End musicals like Chicago, Wicked and Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. This practice is very much a thing of the past, as comedians nowadays tend to just appear on every single TV programme that you can think of, rather than trying to trouble the charts for a laugh. I’m looking at you, Rob Beckett – or Tom Allen for that matter. They are on EVERYTHING! I digress. Back on topic now, ‘Hole In My Shoe’ was performed by Planer in the character of Neil Pye from the hit BBC TV series, ‘The Young Ones’, which was popular in the 1980’s. In fact, it was the lead single from ‘Neil’s Heavy Concept Album’, which was, of course, taking the mickey out of high art progressive music and metal song structures. ‘Hole In My Shoe’ reached #2 on the UK Singles Chart, and it won the award for ‘Best Comedy Recording’ at the BRIT Awards in 1985, beating Alexei Sayle’s ‘Ullo John! Gotta New Motor?’. Let’s watch his performance on Top Of The Pops below.

Neil, one of the principal characters from ‘The Young Ones’, often sang a line from the track as a catchphrase, because it was actually a cover version of 1967’s ‘Hole In My Shoe’ by the Birmingham band Traffic, with the Spoken Word mid-section originally recited by Chris Blackwell’s stepdaughter, Francine Heimann, where she tells a surrealist story that has something to do with a giant Albatross – which was also a hit in the UK, Germany and Canada. For Nigel Planer, the tune, that was originally disliked by the other three members of Traffic for it’s deviation from their typical musical style, made for a brilliantly amusing addition to ‘Neil’s Heavy Concept Album’, which was a spoof parody of 70’s Prog-Rock Concept Albums in the sense that they started a trend of having “heavy concepts” attached to them, such as a narrative, yet Neil’s album did not, although that didn’t come from a lack of trying. Think of The Beatles ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ from 1967 or The Rolling Stones ‘Their Satanic Majesty’s Request’ from 1967 too, and Neil’s effort is sat, rather intentionally uncomfortably, between those two. Neil’s ‘Hole In My Shoe’ unleashes the George Harrison-like Sitar sounds from the get-go, with the guitar grooves and the earthly Drum melodies giving everything a psychedelic and off-kilter feel. The lyrics of the verses are clear, with “I walked through a field/That just wasn’t real/With one hundred tin shoulders” and “I looked in the sky/Where an elephant’s eye/Was looking at me/From a bubblegum tree” trading fantastical elements for abstract comedy. The bridge of “I climbed on the back of a giant anchovy/And flew off through a gap in the clouds/To a land where music is playing” is interrupted with an “Except me” after a cheerful sentiment. Throughout the track, Planer plays his character with excellent timing, and Neil constantly brings us back to reality with his moaning quips like “Oh no, What a really heavy bummer” and goes through a literal ‘high’ with “Oh, what an amazingly beautiful vibe” to constantly toy around with the ideas of music and meaning. Was it good from a traditional standpoint? No, not really. The vocals are very flat, and the narrative makes no sense. Did it have me laughing for the whole way through? Yes, because it’s supposed to be pretty bad from a musical standpoint, and that’s part of the gag. Overall, it’s all hugely enjoyable. Listen to the lyrics, Paul Weller.

  • Pictured: Nigel Planer, an honorary Dr. Of Arts, Edinburgh Napier University (2011) (WikiCommons)

That’s all for now! Join me again tomorrow as we comb the cosmos for a cosmic track from a brand new Minnesota-based Art Pop singer-songwriter who got her inspiration for her debut studio album from the Golden Voyager record. She describes her craft as “Music In Search Of Other Worlds” in her biography. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/