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Our second consecutive track to result from a band schism, Heaven 17 being of course ex-members of the Human League.
I'm not totally sure whether I can remember this song from 1983, but it's certainly a song I know well; the only one of theirs I really can claim to know, actually, but then they did only have one other really big hit.
It's easy to see why it would stick in a child's mind, anyway - there's certainly not much room for confusion about what this one is called, and the combination of the incanted title and the excitable female vocal makes a strong instant impression. That female singer, though not given full chart credit, was one Carole Kenyon, who strangely also has a presence in my record collection as a backing singer on Gene's 'We Could Be Kings'.
As I grew up and started to establish a musical taste, I really began to detest this sort of thing, that rather portentious tone and the sense that they're trying to make some very important point that they haven't really thought through. And the whole way that records of this time sound, with those very clean booming production values, was utterly anathema to me. However, coming back to it on this occasion I find that I've actually warmed to it somewhat. Maybe it's a sign of ageing, maybe it's because I've heard how much worse people like The Killers do this sort of thing nowadays, or maybe my sense of musical appreciation has got a bit more complex. It still doesn't mean anything to me, but I no longer care about that so much.
However, it's still nowhere near as good as the New Order song of the same title. And it's only better than the Everly Brothers song because of the awful backing vocals on that. And the stupid 1992 remix is still beyond the pale, but an interesting sign of what an albatross this song became for them.
A couple of video-related notes: the Limahl vid I linked to in the previous post might very well have been encoded from the VHS version of Now, as it gives you a slight spoiler of this song at the end. Also, I'm sure he's a nice bloke but if you watch too much Glenn Gregory in one sitting he starts to creep you out a bit. Or maybe that's just me.
Also appearing on: Now 4 and 23 (with that remix!).
Available on: The Luxury Gap
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