It’s to our great shame as a nation that ‘Til Tuesday never made it big in the UK. They had the haircuts – presumably bought at a car boot sale held by A Flock of Seagulls – and in frontwoman Aimee Mann they had someone impossible to take your eyes off. They also had the tunes, and Voices Carry was their best. A top ten hit in the US, where college radio is very definitely A Thing, it was resolutely ignored here, despite being the exact sort of number Jonathan King would feature on the then new BBC2 pop series No Limits. I wish they’d bring that back, although obviously without King.

Warning: the video you’re about to see is possibly the most 80s thing ever made.

 
I can’t quite figure out what’s going on, but I think the terrible actor playing the boyfriend is annoyed that Aimee has taken a job as a Limahl impersonator. He then forces her into an outfit reminiscent of a new-wave Grace Kelly and she has a meltdown in the audience at Carnegie Hall. What a lot of cocaine must have been flying around in 1985.

Hopefully none of this will have distracted you from what an amazing job Voices Carry does of being a brilliant song. Lovely and jagged in the verse, I always tingle a bit when the “hush hush” of the chorus breaks like a lovely multi-tracked wave. A tingle is always a sign of a good pop song.

Songs about abusive relationships are always a bit of a hard sell – though let’s not forget Suzanne Vega took Luka to no.23 in 1987, and Eminem has made a career out of it, so it can be done.

Perhaps the record company took the song’s advice too literally and didn’t shout about it enough in the UK. Loose lips might not have sunk this particular ship.

Entered chart: did not chart

Who could sing this today and have a hit? Ooh, let’s have another Rihanna and Eminem team-up!

Published by Niall McMurray

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