Category: Tunes

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Eighties’ best 100 redux: #89 Frankie Goes to Hollywood “The power of love” (1984)

<< #90    |    #88 >>

I’ve written a few times already on these pages* about how Toronto’s alternative rock radio station EDGE 102 (aka CFNY 102.1) did a countdown on the air in the dying days of the 20th century, ranking their top 1002 songs of all time. It was, for me, some of the best commercial radio I’d ever heard, making for great conversation and prognosticating between alt rock music fans, reminding me of songs I’d loved forever and some I’d long forgotten, and of course, introducing me to classics I’d not yet discovered.

One such example of this latter category was broadcast and ranked in the high 100s, wedged in between Yazoo’s “Nobody’s diary” and The Stone Roses’ “Fools gold”. It sounded familiar, but not, an unconventional love ballad, lyrics referencing “hooded claws” and “vampires”, but sung with glorious, impassioned sighs. Midway through, I turned to my tool rental store colleague, Chris, with whom I was working that day, and he returned my quizzical look with one of surprise. “You don’t know ‘The power of love’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood?”

Of course, I had known the Frankie Goes to Hollywood of “Relax” and “Two tribes” infamy, they were ubiquitous in 1984, but this was something completely different, and I was hooked.

Frankie Goes to Hollywood was started by vocalist Holly Johnson in Liverpool in 1980. The original edition didn’t take, so he tried again with a different lineup the following year. The five piece lineup that would sign to ZTT Records in 1983 included Mark O’Toole (bass), Brian Nash (guitars), Peter Gill (drums), and Paul Rutherford (keyboards, tambourine, and dancing). The band would only ever record two albums, but one of these was the iconic debut album, “Welcome to the pleasuredome”, an album that boasted three consecutive #1 UK hit singles, and a fourth that could only make it as high as #2. It was a smash the world over, even in North America, and this on the back of their their love affair with the music video and MTV’s love affair with the band. Their second album, 1986’s “Liverpool”, didn’t come close to its predecessor’s success internationally, but did reasonably well in England and Europe. The band acrimoniously split in 1987. Holly Johnson successfully sued ZTT to get out of the contract, publicly stated he would never perform with his ex-bandmates again, and successfully blocked them from using the Frankie Goes to Hollywood name.

I loved “Relax” and “Two tribes” as a pre-teen and though the nostalgia factor kept me dancing to them on retro nights, “The power of love” became a mainstay on my adult life playlists through most of the 2000s**. It is a ballad that had more of a timeless sound than the rest of their dated, new wave dance hits, boasting real instruments and less Trevor Horn production. It is a love song about love, rather than lovers, and Holly Johnson puts on the vocal clinic that you’d have every right to expect. It’s magical.

Original Eighties best 100 position: n/a

Favourite lyric: “I’m so in love with you / Purge the soul / Make love your goal.” Oh yes, indeed.

Where are they now?: Remember when I said Holly Johnson vowed never to perform with his Frankie bandmates again? Well, he did just that, for one song, at Eurovision 2023, last May, the first time they had performed together onstage since 1987. But of course, nothing since.

*I’ve posted links to playlist versions of this list for both Spotify and Apple Music consumption.

**But somehow I managed to forget to include this great track the last time I was putting together this list of 100 great 80s tunes.

For the rest of the Eighties’ best 100 redux list, click here.

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Best tunes of 2013: #23 My Bloody Valentine “new you”

<< #24    |    #22 >>

For many years, there was nothing but rumours, conjectures, and blind hope, and eventually, all that gave way to eye-rolling and running jokes.

Nevertheless, in 2013, Kevin Shields finally made good on his long-standing promise to follow up 1991’s “Loveless” and he did so in astonishing fashion. I fully admit to getting caught up in all the hoopla on February 2nd, 2013, when Shields had the Internet a-buzz with his announcement that a new My Bloody Valentine album would be made available for purchase from his website that very night. I think I remember reading somewhere that for most of that year’s Super Bowl weekend, “MBV” (or sorry “m b v”) was trending higher on Twitter than that hallowed sporting event.

But how was the album? Did it stand up to “Loveless”?

To be honest, I was in a slightly different situation than other music fanatics my age because I didn’t feel like I had waited the whole 22 years for “m b v”. Though I was aware of My Bloody Valentine at “Loveless”‘s release and liked a few songs at the time, I didn’t become a fan until much later and so my expectations weren’t as insurmountable. Personally, I liked “m b v” from the start. Yes, much of it sounded like it was recorded 22 years before, along with the sessions of its predecessor (except with better production), but for me, there were subtle differences and hints throughout at the direction Shields and company could have been looking to take should they have continued to make music.

Indeed, “m b v” was exceptional because it did something no other album had been able to do: stand up to the brilliance of “Loveless” and not flinch. I don’t think it could have been released at any other time than 2013. I don’t think we were collectively ready to be able to appreciate it as an album for its own beauty until then.

All that being said, “new you” was and still is my favourite track on the album and the one I point to whenever the album comes up in conversation. A double barrelled shotgun of plodding bass and funky drumming, looping guitars that soar and dive, and Blinda Butcher’s ghostly vocals. It is a song in constant climax – no ups, no downs – just pure joy as noise consummated. It is My Bloody Valentine and it is good.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2013 list, click here.

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Best tunes of 2003: #15 Camera Obscura “Suspended from class”

<< #16    |    #14 >>

Well here we are, four days into the new year: 2024. New years bring new hopes and positivity and of course, the promise of new music. Of all the new albums that are hotly anticipated, the long awaited return of Glasgow, Scotland’s Camera Obscura is one of those that will be the most welcome in my books. They had originally hinted at a full return back in 2019, after a hiatus that began with the death of their long-time keyboardist, Carey Lander, in 2015, but then the pandemic pushed things back a few years.

So it’s almost too perfect that this song should come up in my Best tunes of 2003 list, given that Camera Obscura’s sophomore record, “Underachievers please try harder”, was my introduction to band and still one of my favourites of their works. I had picked this one up after reading comparisons to and affiliations with Belle & Sebastian, another Scottish group with whom I was already a fan. And I found myself really digging the twee-heavy indie pop, especially of those sung by Tracyanne Campbell, who would eventually take over all vocal duties with the departure of founding member John Henderson after this album.

“Suspended from class” is the opening number on said album and a perfect mood-setter. It’s a jangly and peppy piece of sunshine pop but if you listen closer and on repeat listens, you’ll realize that there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye.

“I should be suspended from class
I don’t know my elbow from my arse”

This couplet is more than just a cheeky turn of phrase. It is a play upon words and hearkens back to a time when being “suspended” was the worst thing possible that we could think of to happen to us. It is the punishment for stepping out of line, for doing something that doesn’t follow the heavily regimented rules of the educational system. And here, it is a metaphorical kick in the pants for crossing the friend zone boundary, for taking a chance at something more, and being shrunk back down to size when those feelings go unreciprocated. The morning after, that eternal and timeless moment when regrets are enlarged to colossal catastrophes, tear-soaked pillows and mascara smears are all spelled out in Campbell’s delicate vocals and are felt in each tug on the guitar strings and accentuated by horn flourishes.

This is the kind of thing we’ve been missing for these last eight years. Such great storytelling and musicianship.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 2003 list, click here.