The best of the ’80s synthesizer bands — Wang Chung, Tears For
\nFears, and Go West come to mind — were able to do two things that
\nmade them rise above the crowd. The first was an ability to lay
\ndown a white-boy funk or rock backbeat, usually involving bass
\nguitar (Wang Chung’s Nick Feldman being an example of a severely
\nunderrated bass player), and the second was the ability to add
\nelements from diverse pop music forms in their work — funk, disco,
\nrock, soul, R&B, and the nascent forms of what has become
\ntechno and electronica. Any attempt to evaluate music like this has
\nto be in context; in other words, don’t bitch about how Prefab
\nSprout wasn’t as exciting and raw as The Clash.<\/p>\n
That said, I like ’80s synth-pop. I’m one of its remaining
\ndefenders against the hordes of music critic barbarians who have
\nmoved on to the Next Big Thing (and the next, and the next, and the
\nnext\u2026) It was some pretty fun stuff, folks, and I’m not
\nashamed to say I get out my Wang Chung CDs on a regular basis. A
\nlot of these bands have achieved a small but fanatical following on
\nthe Internet, and one of the chief among those are the fans of
\nBrit-pop band Level 42. While their lineup has changed over the
\nlast twenty-some years, original bassist Mark King and keyboardist
\nMike Lindup has hung in there — but the band’s central lineup’s
\nheyday were their two largest hits, 1985’s
\nWorld Machine<\/i> and today’s feature, 1987’s
\nRunning In The Family<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I can hear you all now. ‘Enough history, Duke, talk about the
\nmusic.’<\/p>\n
And so I shall, O Ye DV Faithful.
\nRunning With The Family<\/i> is an interesting piece of music on
\nthe first review; it’s kind of like reading a manual on How To Do
\nAn Eighties Synth-Pop CD. To wit:<\/p>\n
RULE 1: Get A Catchy Single. (“Lessons In Love.” Check.) RULE 2:
\nDo Something Deep And Philosophical. (“Children Say.” Check.) RULE
\n3: Do Something Soulful, So Maybe You’ll Get The Next “Melt With
\nYou.” (“It’s Over.” Check.) RULE 4: Be Funky. (“To Be With You
\nAgain.” Check.) RULE 5: Make Fun Of Your Own Club Audience, In A
\nPiece Of Witty, Self-Referential, And Bitter Parody. (“Fashion
\nFever.” Check.)<\/p>\n
I can go on like this for a while, but I’ll save you the agony
\nof my weak attempts at humour.
\nRunning In The Family<\/i> is mostly formulaic, with all the
\ncliches and conventions firmly in place. If you like Swing Out
\nSister and you guard your Thompson Twins CDs with your life, you’ll
\nlike this, and if your most recent CD purchase was Linkin Park, you
\nprobably won’t. There are a couple of moments where
\nRunning In The Family<\/i> outstrips its own cliches — “The
\nSleepwalkers” is a quirky and neat piece of songwriting that defies
\nthe stereotypes — but it’s mostly well-produced, smooth, slick,
\nand average. If you like the genre, check it out; if you don’t,
\nit’s not going to change your mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6956],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-37815","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-level-42","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37815"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}