a-ha – Living a Boy’s Adventure Tale
Choosing singles can be a hard job – get it right and you have massive hits on your hands, a successful album and if you’re lucky, a range of dolls […]
Scritti Politti – Perfect Way
One of the most interesting developments in pop music in the digital age has been the homogenization of the world pop charts. Because everything now is instantly downloadable or accessible […]
ABBA – When All is Said and Done
Knowing when to leave a party is a trick that not many pop stars have learned – realising that the lights are about to come up and making a dignified […]
Talk Talk – Living in Another World
No-one could ever accuse Talk Talk of selling out for short-term gain. More than any other band of their time they appeared to be on a very specific journey, one that […]
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – If You Leave
This song takes me back to the time I wanted to go to the high school prom but I didn’t think I was good enough compared to all the rich kids. My dad […]
‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry
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 […]
Cyndi Lauper – My First Night Without You
…in which Cyndi Lauper channels Ben E. King and demonstrates what it would be like to have someone go through a complete emotional breakdown right in front of you, all in the space of three minutes. […]
France Gall – Ella Elle L’a
. FRENCH POP ALERT! You can count on one hand the number of French-language hits that made the crossover to the UK charts. Joe le Taxi. Voyage Voyage. Dominique. Je T’aime…Moi Non Plus. […]
ABC – Ocean Blue
Perceived wisdom has it that ABC went a bit rubbish after The Lexicon of Love, and although I hate to say it, perceived wisdom was perhaps onto something. No doubt there are […]
Act – Snobbery & Decay
Take one German pop star, a Scottish "intense, weirdo-electronic-noise-merchant" (Smash Hits, 1985), stick them on the most exciting label of the decade and what do you get? Total amazingness.
Fleetwood Mac – Seven Wonders
Most people, if asked, would say that Seven Wonders was a proper hit, so familiar has it become; and if you lived in America you’d be right, because it made a fairly respectable no.19 there. […]
Everything But the Girl – Come on Home
It has never been easy to be an Everything But the Girl fan. Time and again we’ve watched as inferior acts enjoyed enormous success while Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn were just sort of there, […]
Into the Popvoid 