Curiosity Killed The Cat – Spirit of Dee

Music Review: Now! That’s What I Call Music #16

27 April 201827 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Day 16 takes us to 20th November 1989.

So, we’ve reached the end of the ’80s in our Now! compilation journey. Let’s enjoy those last few glorious tracks!

Now! That's What I Call Music #16

Track 1: Tears For Fears – Sowing The Seeds Of Love

So I was super gutted when Tears For Fears announced their tour last autumn, ’cause the tickets were pricy, we would have had to travel to Leeds, and I just couldn’t justify the expense at the time. It was one of my big gig regrets for 2018.

In the last week, they’ve announced they’ve had to postpone the tour to 2019 for medical reasons. The tickets all became available again, I found out Alison Moyet was supporting (which I hadn’t known before), and I was feeling a bit more flush than I had in the autumn. I bought tickets for the Leeds gig. Of course I did.

So I’m going to see Tears For Fears (and Alison Moyet) in February 2019, and now I don’t have to feel sad and disappointed every time one of their tracks comes on Vintage TV (which is approximately every five minutes). Winning!

Anyway, this track. It’s a bit ‘pre-1990s’ for my liking, especially ’cause I adore their early-to-mid-1980s stuff so much, but it’s a nice tune and I always find myself singing along when it comes on Vintage TV. Which, as I say, is often.

Track 2: Belinda Carlisle – Leave A Light On

Really like this singalong track. Lovely vocals, lovely tune.

Track 3: Erasure – Drama!

Lovely tinkly slow synth intro before the beat bangs in. Epic atmosphere, great track.

Track 4: Debbie Harry – I Want That Man

Really like the tune on this one. Nice upbeat pop.

I think you can probably guess, however, how I feel about the line ‘here comes the twenty-first century/it’s gonna be much better for a girl like me‘. Yeah. I’m glad someone’s optimistic.

Track 5: Sydney Youngblood – If Only I Could

Gotta love those bouncy instrumentals. Great head-nodder.

Track 6: Curiosity Killed The Cat – Name And Number

I’ve always really liked this one! That chorus is great.

Fun fact: Little Mix avoided a pointless cover of this by doing that strange 2010s thing where you cover the chorus only and then do a completely different verse, meaning you can call the track a different name (in this case How Ya Doin’?).

Fun fact 2: In a further example of my family’s sloth-like speed at adopting new phone technologies, we didn’t get an answerphone until the mid-’90s, so I wouldn’t have understood the premise of this song at the time.

Track 7: The Beautiful South – You Keep It All In

Nice jaunty instrumentals, and in comes Jacqui Abbott on the vocals – we are definitely post-Housemartins now. Not my favourite Beautiful South track, but it’s a nice tune with typically whimsical lyrics.

Track 8: Wet Wet Wet – Sweet Surrender

A bit slower from Wet Wet Wet, but I really like those instrumentals. Chorus could be more epic, though.

Track 9: Queen – Breakthru

Nice vocal harmony intro to a slightly erratic track. The tune is a bit dull, but it’s still pretty solid from Queen.

Track 10: Tina Turner – The Best

Classic singalong track – one of those ones where I’m up on the dancefloor at the wedding disco. Epic song.

Track 11: Transvision Vamp – Born To Be Sold

Slower and a bit acoustic from Transvision Vamp today. I still really like it, though.

Track 12: Wendy & Lisa – Waterfall ’89

Slow pop-by-numbers, dull repetitive tune, nothing special.

Track 13: Kate Bush – The Sensual World

Church bell intro! You don’t hear that on every pop song, but then it is Kate Bush. Love the tune too, nice epic atmosphere.

Track 14: Fine Young Cannibals – I’m Not The Man I Used To Be

For some reason, on Now! #16 there were a few tracks that featured on the CD release only. I don’t know if it’s because CDs had more space, and the Now! compilers were excited about the novelty of that, or what. Anyway, this is the first of them.

Nice instrumentals, but this track is a bit slow and dull for my liking.

Track 15: Then Jerico – Sugar Box

A bit saccharine, but I quite like the tune, especially when it gets a bit rockier as the track goes on.

Track 16: Living In A Box – Room In Your Heart

Wow. We’ve reached 1989 and even Living In A Box were doing dull ballads. Nothing to elevate this one.

Track 17: Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting

I’ve always had a soft spot for this ballad. It’s the kind of thing I should hate, but I don’t.

Track 18: Milli Vanilli – Girl I’m Gonna Miss You

It’s Milli Vanilli and their possibly-fake vocals again! I actually really like this one, it’s a lovely tune and theme.

Track 19: The Rebel MC and Double Trouble – Street Tuff

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

Nice upbeat dance track, like the sampling. Good stuff.

Track 20: Bobby Brown – On Our Own

Good instrumentals and sung vocals on this one – the rap’s a bit dull though.

Track 21: Technotronic and Felly – Pump Up The Jam

Classic dance track – another ‘oh, it’s this one!’ moment. Happily chair-dancing right now.

Track 22: Lil’ Louis – French Kiss

Another track that was on the CD release only.

Repetitive intro that goes on too long – get on with it! The shortest version I was able to find is eight minutes long, so it takes forever to get going. Not my kind of thing, especially when it slows down and brings in the orgasm noises. I’m guessing this is not the version that was on the Now! compilation.

Track 23: Adeva – I Thank You

Highly pre-1990s dance track. Vocals a bit over-the-top for me.

Track 24: D-Mob and Cathy Dennis – C’mon And Get My Love

Really like the drum machine on that intro. Solid dance tune.

Track 25: De La Soul – Eye Know

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

Too repetitive for me, and I don’t like the backing tune.

Track 26: Inner City – Whatcha Gonna Do With My Lovin’

Not an Inner City fan anyway, and this one is kind of slow and repetitive. Not for me.

Track 27: Big Fun – Can’t Shake The Feeling

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

Something about the tune annoys me. It’s fairly pop-by-numbers otherwise.

Track 28: Cliff Richard – I Just Don’t Have The Heart

Actually quite an upbeat one from Cliff Richard! His vocals are still super cheesy and irritating though.

Track 29: Jimmy Somerville and June Miles Kingston – Comment Te Dire Adieu

Great track! Daft French atmosphere, awesome tune. I’m chair-dancing again here!

Track 30: Brother Beyond – Drive On

Another ‘CD release only’ track..

A bit cheesy, but I really quite like this – it’s just nice, pure, upbeat pop.

Track 31: Shakespear’s Sister – You’re History

Really squawky and squeaky in the vocals, with Siobhan Fahey going a bit overboard, obviously still feeling that post-Bananarama freedom. Quite an interesting tune, though.

Track 32: Oh Well – Oh Well

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

Nice funky melody, quite a nice track when they’re not rapping.

Track 33: Neneh Cherry – Kisses On The Wind

Bit of a messy sample mishmash at the start, but it’s okay once it gets going.

Track 34: Redhead Kingpin & The FBI – Do The Right Thing

Headache-inducing intro, repetitive track. Not my cup of tea.

Track 35: Fresh 4 and Lizz E – Wishing On A Star

Not a fan of this drum ‘n’ bass cover, but at least it does something different to the Rose Royce original.

Music Review: Now! That’s What I Call Music #10

21 April 20181 December 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Day 10’s Now! compilation was released on 23rd November 1987.

Now! #10 is special to me, because it’s the one we had (and still have) on vinyl – the one Dad always put on the record player for me when I wanted to listen to music, the one I learnt to sing and dance to, the one I grew up with, the one that absolutely shaped my music taste. While there were a lot of Now! compilations I was familiar with in the ’90s, this one is my one. I must have listened to it a thousand times.

Let’s have a listen to some tracks I know very, very well.

Now! That's What I Call Music #10

Track 1: Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé – Barcelona

The opening bars of this track still send chills down my spine – I’m instantly transported back to my parents’ living room as it looked in the last century, the sound of the record on the player that you just can’t replicate digitally, the bass on the speakers of Dad’s homemade sound system, the anticipation of an evening spent listening to music I loved.

The BBC used this song for its coverage of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, so the song also takes me back to summer days in front of the TV at our holiday caravan (we usually had a black and white TV at the caravan but for the Olympics we brought a colour one with us specially), watching Sally Gunnell and Linford Christie winning gold.

How this one shaped my music taste: You know how every third song review I’ve done on this feature seems to contain the phrase ‘epic atmosphere’? This is the ultimate in epic atmospheres – booming, dramatic, lots of switching between major and minor key, piano, operatic vocals, slow verses building to a huge chorus, the works. That is what I love in music – something that makes me feel that strange mixture of happy and sad.

Track 2: Pet Shop Boys – Rent

Pet Shop Boys can do no wrong in my opinion, but this is a stunner. Beautiful lyrical theme, wonderful emotion-inducing synth line, and another of those epic atmospheres I was talking about above. An all-time favourite.

Fun fact: Carter USM did a not-at-all-pointless ’90s cover of this, which is very different but also absolutely beautiful. Nothing will ever beat the original for me, but that Carter cover is great.

How this one shaped my music taste: Two words: electronic music. I’ve always been drawn to electro, and it’s largely because of early exposure to beautiful synthpop like this.

Track 3: The Communards – Never Can Say Goodbye

Another great pop track from the Communards. More amusement provided by 2017 Strictly contestant Richard Coles in the video, in which he leads the crowd on the disco dancefloor with some dodgy moves that were nonetheless way better than anything he did on Strictly. Still wish he’d stayed in the competition longer!

How this one shaped my music taste: It’s fast, upbeat ’80s pop. Say no more!

Track 4: M/A/R/R/S – Pump Up The Volume

This one always scared me a bit as a kid. I’m not sure why. I remember that feeling of fear, wanting to go and hide while the song was playing, but I never did. I just always stayed kind of rooted to the spot until it was over.

As an adult who no longer experiences irrational fear (um, mostly), I find it a great chantalong track, and due to its ‘SAN FRANCISCO/pump up the volume‘ hook, I played it nonstop for a week leading up to a trip to San Francisco in 2011. True story. I am super lame.

How this one shaped my music taste: I always give things a chance, even when it doesn’t immediately sound like my cup of tea. Anything might grow on you eventually. Even if it’s a song that gives you strange, irrational fear.

Track 5: Hue & Cry – Labour Of Love

Most definitely an example of that unexplainable mid-’80s Scottish band sound, but in a great way. I absolutely love this track – the rapid tempo, the stop-start hooks, the catchy vocals. Awesome song.

How this one shaped my music taste: I love interesting hooks. And piano.

Track 6: Jellybean and Steven Dante – The Real Thing

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

On the surface this one is a bit dull, but it’s got a nice singalong chorus, and I always find myself nodding along.

How this one shaped my music taste: It’s not always the expected tracks that have you chair-dancing.

Track 7: Johnny Hates Jazz – I Don’t Want To Be A Hero

Great upbeat pop song with a catchy, singalong chorus. There’s something nice and emotional about the bridge, too.

How this one shaped my music taste: You can find a lovely epic bridge in the most unexpected songs.

Track 8: The Style Council – Wanted

Nice feelgood track from the Style Council – as ever, the backing vocals are great. Love those tinkly instrumental hooks.

How this one shaped my music taste: I really appreciate good backing vocals.

Track 9: T’Pau – China In Your Hand

Beautiful, beautiful song – another one with an epic atmosphere. The vocals are stunning, the way the song builds is perfect, and that sax solo is brilliantly over-the-top.

How this one shaped my music taste: There’s nothing I like more than an epic ’80s sax solo!

Track 10: Heart – Alone

This one is really special to me. It’s a gorgeous rock ballad that has really spoken to me throughout various periods of my life, and always makes me quite emotional. Beautiful lyrics, beautiful guitar solos – epic, epic song.

How this one shaped my music taste: I adore huge overdramatic rock ballads. Really!

Track 11: Kiss – Crazy Crazy Nights

Great singalong party song from Kiss. I love those rocked-out verses and the chorus is mega, especially once you hit the key change.

Due to being hard of hearing, and thus having a lot of issues with background noise, I’ve always found it difficult to make out what singers are singing about – I am the queen of misheard lyrics – but this nice, simple chorus is easy to sing along to. Great job!

How this one shaped my music taste: I have a soft spot for key changes. I even quite liked it when Westlife used to do their terrible cheesy ones with the accompanying standing-up-from-stools-on-stage.

Track 12: Billy Idol – Mony Mony

Another great singalong rock chorus that even hard-of-hearing types can make out! In later life, I grew to love other Billy Idol songs even more than this one, but that nice simple ‘mony mony‘ lyric has a special place in my heart.

How this one shaped my music taste: ’80s pop rock, ’nuff said. It also strongly shaped my fashion taste, due to the accompanying picture of Billy Idol in the record sleeve with all his spiky hair and black leather and general rock attitude. By the time he showed up in The Wedding Singer a decade later, my love of the ’80s rock look was set in stone.

Track 13: Whitesnake – Here I Go Again ’87

More classic ’80s rock! Brilliant singalong track that is only enhanced by the over-the-top video and all its ridiculous double Jaguar bonnet cartwheeling. Not bad for a band from Middlesbrough.

I have to say I prefer this version to the version they originally did in 1982, probably because this is the one I heard so often in childhood, due to this compilation.

How this one shaped my music taste: Hair metal. I love it and I won’t apologise.

Track 14: The Alarm – Rain In The Summertime

Great feelgood track with lovely jingly instrumentals. I’ve seen this performed live, when the band played at Beautiful Days 2010. I dragged Geth to see them, purely because of their presence on this compilation, and he was not impressed! What I found out that day: playing a song entitled Rain In The Summertime, when outdoors in the British summer, is just asking for it, and the inevitable downpour that struck that evening meant that we had to shelter in the Big Top indoor stage. We did end up getting engaged that night, so you can’t complain.

How this one shaped my music taste: I have a whimsical appreciation for songs about rain.

Track 15: Marillion – Sugar Mice

Bit of a slow one, but it builds in a great epic fashion, culminating in an awesome epic guitar solo.

How this one shaped my music taste: I really love songs that build well.

Track 16: Wet Wet Wet – Sweet Little Mystery

Great upbeat pop – always been a fan of this one. I really like Wet Wet Wet’s ’80s stuff, before they got all grown-up and introspective in the ’90s.

How this one shaped my music taste: I appreciate nice, simple pop songs.

Track 17: Curiosity Killed The Cat – Misfit

Really like this one – my favourite Curiosity Killed The Cat track. As a kid, not being familiar with the idiom, I used to get upset by the band’s name (I love cats).

How this one shaped my music taste: I never judge a band by their name.

Track 18: Los Lobos – La Bamba

A cover of the Ritchie Valens classic. The cover is very close to the original, but deliberately so as it was recorded for the film La Bamba, which was about Valens, so I’m not going to call it a pointless cover – instead I’ll just enjoy the tune, which is a great party track and was played at every birthday party I went to in the late ’80s.

How this one shaped my music taste: Sometimes the oldies are the goodies. (And now that it’s the ’80s hits that are the oldies, this has never been more true.)

Track 19: Fat Boys and Beach Boys – Wipeout

Great surf-themed song. The Fat Boys’ cackle at the start of the song is another thing that scared me as a kid (they also looked pretty scary in their album sleeve picture, which I seem to remember involving snakes), but once the song gets going it’s great, especially when the Beach Boys’ harmonies kick in.

How this one shaped my music taste: I never judge a band by the way they look. This has served me well in the goth scene!

Track 20: Bananarama – Love In The First Degree

Another pop classic from Bananarama – I absolutely adored this one as a kid and still love it now.

This is another one where the album sleeve picture made a big impression on my young brain. The band members were all fully clothed themselves, but they each had a topless dude as an accessory. This is something you’d be less likely to see in pop music today, where female artists are usually hugely objectified and barely clothed. In some ways, we’ve gone backwards since the ’80s. </soapbox>

How this one shaped my music taste: Bananarama’s music, for me is the epitome of the fun and intelligence that pop music and lyrics used to have. If pop music doesn’t have that – which, nowadays, it usually doesn’t – it’s not pop music in my book. It’s that simple.

Track 21: Cliff Richard – My Pretty One

The vocals are far too saccharine for me, ’cause it’s Cliff Richard, but the instrumentals are actually really nice!

How this one shaped my music taste: I know not to listen to Cliff. Is that cheating?

Track 22: Karel Fialka – Hey Matthew

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

I’ve always loved this one – a really, really interesting song with vocals that, despite having a nice melody when you listen closely, sound almost spoken in some ways, actual spoken word from a child that manages to be interesting rather than annoying, and great screechy electro hooks.

How this one shaped my music taste: I have a soft spot for spoken word.

Track 23: Jan Hammer – Crockett’s Theme

So much better than his main theme for Miami Vice! I’ve always adored this tune.

How this one shaped my music taste: I love a good instrumental soundtrack.

Track 24: Nina Simone – My Baby Just Cares For Me

Love the plinky piano on this classic track. Can’t remember why it was in the charts again, but I’m not complaining!

How this one shaped my music taste: I really like interesting piano stuff.

Track 25: Erasure – The Circus

One of my favourite Erasure tracks – but then, I love everything they did in the ’80s. This is a gorgeous song.

How this one shaped my music taste: More great synthpop that cemented my electro addiction.

Track 26: The Housemartins – Build

Lovely track from the Housemartins – beautiful introspective lyrics and nice slow tune.

How this one shaped my music taste: Sometimes, there’s something beautiful about a slower song.

Track 27: Level 42 – It’s Over

A slower one from Level 42, with really interesting instrumental lines.

And no, I’ve still not booked tickets to that October gig I keep going on about. I will get round to it soon, I promise!

How this one shaped my music taste: Speaking of slower songs, they can be really musically interesting as well!

Track 28: ABC – When Smokey Sings

Adore ABC, adore this track. I love that epic intro, Martin Fry’s vocals, the instrumentals – everything.

How this one shaped my music taste: I love songs that bang in right from the start. Start as you mean to go on!

Track 29: Squeeze – Hourglass

Great jaunty song. That chorus is just awesome, typical bit of fun from Squeeze!

How this one shaped my music taste: I really appreciate songs that have something whimsical about them.

Track 30: The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale Of New York

An all-time classic. One of my favourite Christmas songs, and one I learnt to adore early in life, thanks to this compilation. Just beautiful.

How this one shaped my music taste: Though you might not be able to guess at the moment, due to me being super curmudgeonly about them when it’s springtime, I adore Christmas songs. I get my playlist on the go in early November and I watch the music channels religiously in the lead-up to the festive season. Very few of them are as good as this one, but the genre is special to me.

Music Review: Now! That’s What I Call Music #9

20 April 201820 April 2018 Dee Leave a comment

Day 9 equals Now! #9, which was released on 23rd March 1987.

Here are some tracks that may have floated into my tiny brother’s tiny ears.

Now! That's What I Call Music #9

Track 1: Jackie Wilson – Reet Petite

I hear this one regularly every Christmas period due to its status as the 1986 UK Christmas number one. As a result, it’s slightly Christmas-associated in my book, and also slightly annoying.

Track 2: Mental As Anything – Live It Up

I wasn’t familiar with this one. Nice chorus, good upbeat track.

Track 3: Simply Red – The Right Thing

This one’s a bit repetitive for me, though I like the instrumentals.

Track 4: Erasure – Sometimes

This is Geth’s go-to Erasure DJing track, so I kind of associate it with 2.55pm in a goth club. Great tune, though.

Track 5: Robbie Nevil – C’est La Vie

It’s a bit dull, but there’s something I quite like about it, maybe just ’cause it’s been featured on so many ’80s compilations I’ve heard.

Track 6: Hot Chocolate – You Sexy Thing

This was a hit again ’cause it had a new remix for its tenth anniversary, though I can’t work out whether it was the original or the remix that was featured on this compilation. Classic tune either way.

Track 7: The Blow Monkeys – It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

I’ve always liked this one – great chorus, great saxophone riffs.

Incidentally, the Blow Monkeys are going to be supporting Level 42 at that gig at the Sage Gateshead in October! I should really stop going on about said gig on here and go buy tickets instead.

Track 8: The Housemartins – Caravan Of Love

One of my favourite Housemartins tracks – lovely a cappella cover of an Isley Brothers song from the previous year.

Track 9: Boy George – Everything I Own

Hmm, not for me, this one. Boy George has basically brought the ‘annoying’ aspect of Culture Club songs into his solo career.

Track 10: UB40 – Rat In Mi Kitchen

Nice jaunty, daft tune. Love the whimsy of this one.

I should, however, point out that as a professional editor, I absolutely hate that misspelling of ‘my’ in the title. Just why?

Track 11: The Gap Band – Big Fun

Like the atmosphere of this one, though the samples and vocals are a bit dull.

Track 12: Five Star – Stay Out Of My Life

I’m not a huge Five Star fan, and I find this one pretty dull, though some of the instrumental hooks are quite interesting.

Track 13: Pepsi & Shirlie – Heartache

It’s a bit pop-by-numbers, but I really like that the girls from Wham! got to go and have some hits by themselves (great vocals too now that they’re not playing second fiddle to George Michael!) before fading into obscurity again.

Track 14: Bananarama – Trick Of The Night

Love that sax intro, love the atmosphere of this one. Great track.

Track 15: Berlin – Take My Breath Away

Another one from my original ’80s playlist circa 2001. A bit overplayed due to the Top Gun connection, but a stunning pop ballad.

Track 16: Freddie Mercury – The Great Pretender

Wonderfully cheesy over-the-top dramatic number. I’d expect no less from Freddie Mercury.

Track 17: Ben E King – Stand By Me

Nice ’60s classic – back in the charts, I believe, due to the film of the same name. Lovely singalong track.

Track 18: Curiosity Killed The Cat – Down To Earth

Nice slightly laid-back track. It’s a bit ‘background’ for me, but I do like it.

Track 19: The Communards – So Cold The Night

A slightly more dramatic one from the Communards, with a great epic atmosphere.

Track 20: Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley – Jack Your Body

Like the tune, but the vocal sample is really irritating!

Track 21: Taffy – I Love My Radio (Midnight Radio)

Great synth line, great catchy vocals! Will be adding this to the playlist.

Track 22: Nick Kamen – Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever

Lyrics a bit cheesy for my liking, though the tune is quite nice, and that sax solo is great.

Track 23: A-ha – Manhattan Skyline

Interestingly slow verses before it kicks in with a great upbeat chorus. Nice epic atmosphere, great track from A-ha.

Track 24: Westworld – Sonic Boom Boy

Quite a fun wee track, good chant-along head-nodder.

Track 25: Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Prayer

Hair metal headbanging time! Most definitely a guilty pleasure. This was a Cav classic circa 2001-2002 (i.e. played regularly at the Cavendish, a godawful cheap nightclub in Edinburgh that sold VK Apple alcopops for £1 each, resulting in a thousand hangovers during that era. Ah, teen years. The club still exists but, several name changes later, is now called Atik).

Track 26: Genesis – Land Of Confusion

Probably my favourite Genesis song – I love this one! Bonus points also for the Spitting Image video.

Track 27: Europe – The Final Countdown

More headbanging, another guilty pleasure, and also, incidentally, another Cav classic (see above). I can almost taste the VK Apple, which is not a good thing.

Track 28: Gary Moore – Over The Hills And Far Away

Love this folk-tinged bit of classic rock! I’ve spent my adulthood in goth clubs hearing the Nightwish cover, but I prefer this original version.

Track 29: Ward Brothers – Cross That Bridge

‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).

Nice bit of upbeat pop, currently chair-dancing here. Great synth in the instrumentals.

Track 30: Pretenders – Hymn To Her

Great lyrics, though the track is a bit slow for me. Nice tune too.