Let There Be Music

The 'Let's Change The World With Music' album was composed and recorded in demo form back in 1992, but rejected by Prefab Sprout's record label. This release is actually Paddy McAloon's original demo, performed entirely by him back in '92, but slightly remastered by Calum Malcolm in 2009.

'Let There Be Music' is a Pop 'Til You Drop early doors statement of intent.

See you on the dancefloor!

When I'm With You

When I get drunk, I have a tendency to hold interminable pub conferences about what makes a good love song. My list of favourites is several miles long, but I often come back to 'When I'm With You' by Sparks for its strange accuracy and lightness of touch.

The track was produced by Giorgio Moroder and Harold Faltermeyer and is taken from the superbly titled 'Terminal Jive' album from 1980.

And if the video doesn't give you the raging horn, you're dead from the waist down.

"When I'm with you

I never have a problem when I'm with you

I'm really well-adjusted

When I'm with you

When I'm with you

I lose a lot of sleep when I'm with you

I meet a lot of people

When I'm with you

It's the break in the song

When I should say something special

But the pressure is on and I can't make up nothing special

Not when I'm with you

When I'm with you

I never feel like garbage when I'm with you

I almost feel normal

When I'm with you

When I'm with you

I'm always hot and bothered when I'm with you

I always need a shower

When I'm with you

It's the break in the song

When I should say something special

But the pressure is on and I can't make up nothing special

Not when I'm with you

When I'm with you

I never need a mirror when I'm with you

I don't care what I look like

When I'm with you"

Reach For Love

"I freeze, baby,

At the thought of leaving you behind..."

The question I least like being asked when I am DJing is:

“Are you the DJ?”

Closely followed by:

“Whenyer gunner play some Manchester stuff?”

But over the years I have developed coping mechanisms for both. For the first I have an affronted and unyielding Ron Mael-esque stare that says, ‘If you come near me again I will pin your scrotum to this turntable and then press start.’

For the second I have Marcel King.

What a record.

I first came across the amazing ‘N.Y. mix’ of ‘Reach For Love’ on an American blog years ago, and after perusing Discogs was surprised to discover the track came out on Factory Benelux in 1984. It was produced by New Order’s Bernard Sumner and Donald Johnson of ACR – Manchester’s all-time *heaviest* drummer. Apparently, this collaboration came about after New Order manager Rob Gretton – a massive soul head, of course – found Marcel sleeping rough in the back of a car. I’m not sure how much truth there is in this rumour.

Rob would have known Marcel from his tenure as front man for Sweet Sensation – the eight-piece Philly-style Manchester soul group that won the talent show New Faces in 1973 and had a hit with ‘Sad Sweet Dreamer’.

‘Reach For Love’ is one of those records that never leaves my DJ bag. It’s like an old mate that can be relied upon to boot you smartly up the arse, buy you a pint and haul you onto the dancefloor when you need it most. Marcel’s vocal is something else: euphoric and yet easy-going, with just a tantalising hint of remonstration on those “I’ve been trying to show you a better way” lines. The production still sounds killer – even on shit café soundsystems. You have to be careful at what point you drop ‘Reach For Love’, though, because it can flatten other records with its knock-out punch.

Tragically, Marcel King died of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1995, aged just 38.

R.I.P, sir. You fucking rocked.

Juxtapozed With U

"I'm not in love with you

But I won't hold that against you..."

Whilst here at Pop Heights we do occasionally suffer from a touch of vocoder-fatigue, we never tire of 'Juxtaposed With U'.

According to Wikipedia, the song was inspired by 'Ebony and Ivory'(!) as well as the work of Marvin Gaye and Caetano Veloso. The track was originally conceived as a duet, with the band approaching both Brian Harvey (from East 17) and Bobby Brown to sing alongside Gruff Rhys. Both turned the band down, so Rhys sang the verses through a vocoder to imitate another person, something which he described later as a "very schizophrenic thing to do".

Union City Blue

"Tunnel to the other side

It becomes daylight

I say he's mine..."

How can a track like 'Union City Blue' - essentially a pop song with no discernible chorus - be so stirring, panoramic and unforgettable? Really, it's just several verses strung together in a rather humdrum cycle, and yet it is one of the strongest songs in the Blondie catalogue. It's so free-flowing and airy it sounds as though it took Debbie Harry and bassist Nigel Harrison (a Stockport lad, by the way) mere seconds to jam out. They obviously had the confidence to just let it fly. All power to them for not structuring the life out of it.

I find the track evocative of my teenage years in Preston. I used to blast it out in my ten-foot by ten-foot bedsit, often in an attempt to mask the sounds of the middle-aged man in the room opposite shagging his alsatian. The song personified everything I longed for at that point: escape; enterprise; the sheer glamour and scale of city life. All those words Harry throws at the listener - Skyline! Passion! Power! How they reeled me in.

I went to see Blondie in 2000. It wasn't an amazing experience, but it was one I thought I'd never have. Chris Stein looked so frail and ill he gave the impression of being propped up and operated from behind by a complex pulley system. Debbie was throwing herself around like a pissed grandma on a bouncy castle to compensate. But when Clem Burke started slamming out the tom tom intro of 'Union City Blue', I nearly pissed myself with excitement. He looked and sounded perfect.

'Union City Blue' is as much Clem's song as it is Nigel and Debbie's. The end of the track is as heart-stopping as the opening. For almost the whole of the last minute, Clem is smashing the shit out of every cymbal available. Few other pop producers would countenance such a relentless hammering of splash, ride and crash, but Mike Chapman knew better than to argue. Pure exhilaration.

On a final note, I have always noticed that, live, Debbie Harry tends to sing "powder" rather than "power". I'm not entirely sure what this might be a reference to...

(Starts 3:45 minutes in.)

Freebirds

"Freebirds fly away

They just don't stay..."

Picked this up on a chunky little seven at the weekend. It has everything I need from a pop song at the moment: sleek production, soothingly predictable chord changes that you can sink into like a hot bath, and a desolate vocal about losing a lover to that ol' homebreaker 'freedom'.

Nice video too.

Lover Lover are Eleanor Bodenham and Martin Craft (M. Craft, Jarvis Cocker) with producer Nick Littlemore (Empire of the Sun).

You can hear an acoustic version here:

Lover Lover - Freebirds Acoustic by Cross Keys Records

http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/products/LoverLover-Freebirds-CrossKeysRecords-76286.html

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'?

The next Pop 'Til You Drop party is Saturday May 28th at The Deaf Institute, Manchester.

With DJs:

Abigail Ward (Fist of Pop)

Neil Scott (El Diablo’s Social Club)

Pasta Paul (Piccadilly Records)

SET IT OFF!