Showing posts with label Blow Monkeys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blow Monkeys. Show all posts

Friday, 12 July 2013

The Blow Monkeys 'It Doesn't Have To Be This Way'

Chart Peak: 5

YouTube
Charted at No. 27 on 27th January, had sped to No. 5 by 10th February, finally giving the group a second hit to follow 'Digging Your Scene'.
As it turned out, those two songs remained the group's only Top 20 hits, though they also had a Top 10 single with 'Wait' which was credited to Robert Howard (aka Dr Robert, the lead singer) and Kym Mazelle.

An example of the politicised polished neo-soul sound of this era, sometimes called sophistipop, this was the first single from their anti-Thatcher concept album She Was Only A Grocer's Daughter. I presume that title wasn't supposed to sound as snobbish as it seems. Being relatively vague in lyrical content, it was more radio-friendly than much of the rest of the album. Rather too a fault, if anything, because it has a very smooth slick sound that makes it hard to be moved by it. It's catchy enough to be an understandable Top 5 hit, but it doesn't sound much like an insurrection. In all honesty it's a bit too platitudinous to be truly likeable, coming over as a bit self-satisfied and preachy. In fact I'm a bit surprised how little I like it, I always imagined they were better than this. Maybe it's just an unfortunate song choice for their only Now! appearance.

Available on: Halfway to Heaven: The Best of The Blow Monkeys and Dr Robert