ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #110

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

# 110: Yazoo – ‘Nobody’s Diary’ (Mute Records ’83)

Dear friends,

synth-pop is a dangerous thing, I always thought. You see, your approval for it falls and stands with your age, more specifically: when you were 14, 15, 16, developing a serious interest for music – was it 1983 then or was it 1993? The point I’m trying to make is: in 1983, 1984, at least here in Germany, there was nothing else but synth-pop by and large, you were flooded with it everywhere: radio, TV, clubs (well, ‘clubs’ in a sense: we are talking rural village gatherings here, you see – those venues you could get into when you were an adolescent, a club bouncer in town would just laugh at you and send you away).

In addition to this the media was still desperately trying to reanimate the dead horse that was called „New (German) Wave“ over here, basically this was awful synth-pop, albeit sung in German. There were positive exceptions, but very limited ones, believe me, the vast majority was total crap.

So, the point I’m trying to make is: you were battered with new romantic synth-pop all day long, sung in English and sung in German – there was no escape! Please get me right: the new bands were not bad per se, 99% of their synth stuff was much more enjoyable than the 12-minute-guitar-solo-prog-rock-stuff we constantly had to listen to in the aforementioned “youth clubs“ before. Why? Well, because the DJs there were always either old hippies or hard rock fanatics, always much older than you … and you would not argue with them when you were 14, that’s why! But eventually they could not close their eyes any longer, the demand got too big, or the requests too many, I suppose – soon synth pop had found its way into those youth clubs as well.

Now, coming to the essence of all of this: you might already have gathered it, but of course only the mainstream stuff got played there, just like on the radio – Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Heaven 17, Human League, Icehouse, Tears For Fears, you know the lot!

But there were quite some bands which flew below the radar, undeservedly so, because what they offered was superb: clever, thoughtful, special. Three totally underrated bands stood out here, one and two were – in my humble opinion – Blancmange and Soft Cell and the third was Yazoo. We can have endless discussions about which single to go for by Yazoo, ”Only You“, „Don’t Go“, „Situation“, „The Other Side Of Love“ – or my absolute favourite, this:

 

mp3: Yazoo – Nobody’s Diary

The tabloids back then were more uncertain than me, apparently:

Smash Hits: “Strong on emotion and weak on melody but the combination of ringing synths and bluesy singing is still a winner.”

Number One: “It sounds like all the rest, and yet, it doesn’t! Somehow they keep coming up with enough hit variations on their theme. Can’t fail.”

Melody Maker: “quite like[s]” the song, but would “like to hear a different kind of backing track” for Moyet’s “wonderful” vocals as Yazoo’s “synthesized sound doesn’t have very much depth”. Still it would be a big hit and that Moyet “sounds very different on this, a bit restrained, a bit deeper”.

Contrary to the music papers, there is nothing at all which I miss from or would add to this single – it’s just perfect the way it is!

Enjoy and take good care,

 

Dirk