Eurythmics - Julia (Long Version) (Virgin, 1984)

Wistful, haunting track from the 1984 soundtrack.

For a long time Eurythmics were my favourite band. I haven't really listened much to them for years - apart from their Krautrocking debut album 'In The Garden' (yes, really).

Between the pomp-rocking stadium angst, they did release a number of edgy, even challenging, albums. This soundtrack to the Richard Burton and John Hurt version of 1984 is suitably dark, mainly comprising rhythm-heavy, chanted moodiness and echoing the fusion flavours of 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts'.

However, right in the middle of the album is this simple, haunting ballad that spins yearning and loss from a minimal pallette of piano and synths.

Download Eurythmics 'Julia' (1984 OST, mp3) (Divshare)

Dexys Midnight Runners - The Way You Look Tonight (Mercury, 1984)

In celebration of the idea of a new Dexys album this year...

'Don't Stand Me Down' by Dexys Midnight Runners is one of the greatest records of all time. Bizarrely, it's a catastrophic, career-ending greatest album of all time. Pop is truly a fickle mistress.

This version of the Jerome Kern song was recorded in the sessions for said album but not released until 1988 on the b-side of a Kevin Rowland solo single. And then again on the Creation Records reissue of 'Don't Stand Me Down' in 1997, which is where I discovered it.

Kevin Rowland takes a familiar song - a 'standard' I suppose - and imbues it with so much pure passion that it's breathtaking.

A true genius.

Allegedly, there's a new Dexys album - 'One Day I'm Going To Soar' - on June 4th. Listen to a snippet on Youtube.

Download Dexys Midnight Runners 'The Way You Look Tonight' (genius, Dexys mp3) (Rapidshare)

Blancmange 'The Day Before You Came (Extended Version)' (London, 1984)

Kitchen sink drama rendered in synth pop as Blancmange cover Abba.

My introduction to this excellent piece of life-on-hold mundanity by Andersson/Ulvaeus was through this version by Blancmange. Its minor key synth pop symphony provided an antecedent to the likes of Korallreven, Saint Etienne's work with Golden and, of course, the Pet Shop Boys.

This 12" version is extended with passages of percussion, the warmth of the main melody dropping out, only adds to the sense of life being on hold until that certain someone comes back. Blancmange give the song a wonderfully dark, percussive edge, the extended version bringing the pattering tabla percussion to the fore, synth strings sweeping sadly in a way that says bedsits and rain.

Eight minutes of glorious minimal miserabilism. Enjoy.

Download Blancmange 'The Day Before You Came (Extended Version)' (alternative, pop, synthpop, mp3) (Mediafire) [removed by request]

Echo & The Bunnymen 'The Killing Moon (All Night Mix)' (Korova, 1984)

Extended perfection from Echo & The Bunnymen.

Ian MacCulloch was never one for modesty when it came to the band's output. However, when you've given the world a song like this you've got some grounds for boasting.

As a one-off achievement, it puts them up there alongside The Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now', New Order's 'True Faith', Jesus & Mary Chain's 'Just Like Honey', Cocteau Twins' 'Pearly Dewdrops Drops' and so on.

Utterly wonderful - sweeping strings, dramatic sound, passionate vocals, it should really have been covered by Frank Sinatra on one of those Rick Rubin-produced career reappraisal albums. As it is, unless you're Sinatra, you'd have to be very brave to take this one on. Only Pavement have succeeded IMHO, but that's one for another day.

Download Echo & The Bunnymen 'The Killing Moon (All Night Mix)' (indie alternative rock mp3) (Mediafire)

David Sylvian 'Weathered Wall (Instrumental)' (Virgin, 1984)

Built around a measured drum pattern, this track builds upon shifting waves of ambient synths and a siren-like breathy horn part.

Released as a b-side (to 'The Ink In The Well') this instrumental version of the track creates a mood of isolation and contemplation, a wailing prayer sample emerging out of one section.

'Brilliant Trees' emerged from the burst of energy and activity that followed Sylvian's exit from what he felt were the confines of the band Japan. Leaving a pop band to explore his core artistic impulses, it freed him to pursue a less commercial path though, to be fair, Japan took some distinctly uncommercial music into the charts ('Ghosts' and 'Nightporter' for starters) and made some great records, particularly 'Gentlemen Take Polaroids', 'Tin Drum' and the live send-off 'Oil On Canvas'.

Recorded with musicians like Kenny Wheeler, Holger Czukay, Danny Thompson, Mark Isham and Jon Hassell, 'Brilliant Trees' is a much more primal, groove-based music than subsequent albums which dealt in ambience, jazz-influences, progressive rock and latterly the avant garde. 'Weathered Wall' represents a pretty good balance of these impulses.

Download David Sylvian 'Weathered Wall (Instrumental)' (instrumental, experimental, alternative mp3) (Mediafire)

Scritti Politti 'Absolute' (Virgin, 1984)

This record is just sublime. From the harmonies, the layers of sound, the pristine yet soulful feeling. The way the tune slides into the bridge ("Absolute a principle, to make your heart invincible...") is incredible, subtle but wrong-footing nonetheless.

As records made in the 1980s go I wouldn't say it's over-produced (that would suggest they had somehow got it wrong) but it is absolutely, resolutely uber-produced. It is polished and tweaked and tuned and super-charged. Each component part has been honed with care and has its own place in the delicate, silky balance of the track. And if you listen to this "enthusiastic" fan cover, it's clear Absolute is a song, not just a production.

It's like Smokey Robinson produced by Trevor Horn. Beautiful.



Bibbly-O-Tek Scritti fan site