Tasmin Archer 'In Your Care'

Chart Peak: 16
YouTube

'In Your Care', the follow-up to the No. 1 'Sleeping Satellite', showcased the depth of the Archer/Hughes/Beck songwriting team and gave the Bradford chanteuse her second British Top 20 single in February '93.

Possibly the most surprising track on Now 24, at least to those of us who didn't hear it at the time (although she had as many as five Top 40 singles, the only ones I recall are 'Sleeping Satellite' and her cover of 'Shipbuilding'). To be sure, the track does continue the relatively mellow musical style of the disc so far, but Archer's vocal is harsher than might be expected from her previous single and she uses the phrase "Son of a bitch" repeatedly in the chorus - it's left unbleeped here and even of Top Of The Pops, presumably thanks to the song's serious subject matter. It's a difficult tale of child abuse from the child's perspective (possibly told by a still-traumatised adult, although this may be a product of her obviously grown-up voice). Certainly a brave choice of follow-up single, although the pill is sugared a little by the smooth production and the exemplary upright bass-playing of the legendary Danny Thompson.

In the event, the courage of this release was not really rewarded and her momentum seemed to fall away. She never made the Top 20 again, and by the time she returned with a second album in 1996 she seemed like ancient history to me. Perhaps calling the first album Great Expectations was a poor omen.

Also appearing on: Now 23
Available on: Tasmin Archer - Best Of

Tasmin Archer 'Sleeping Satellite'

Chart Peak: 1 (2 weeks)

YouTube

Well, I'd been putting off Now 23 (my mum's favourite number!) for a long time, and it seemed like it was time to return to much earlier days after the slightly awkward experience of trying to cover 18-month-old tracks on Now 69.

So, we're back here with a song that perhaps feels even older than it is, somehow. Perhaps it's the fretless bass on the arrangement, perhaps the not-obviously-topical subject of space exploration - but I think something in the whole style of the lyric, which seems something of a meditation on a broad subject, has a decidedly old-fashioned feel to it. Perhaps this is why Archer, though not in real terms a one-hit-wonder, struggled to build a big career off the back of this.

Unfortunately, if this seemed out of place in 1992, it's even more so in 2009. It's not an enticing start to our visit to 1992.

Also appearing on: Now 24
Available on: Pure 90s Pop