Perhaps if I held you I could win again

Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts

31/07/83 : You And Me Both - Yazoo

What a fascinating musical career Vince Clarke has had - but for me this album and Upstairs At Erics are his crowning glory, with his slightly quirky take on things perfectly offset by the enthralling and intense yearning of Alison Moyet (who hasn't had the easiest of lives, but when I saw her at Glastonbury in the early 2010s she was infectiously joyous and could still belt out a tune with the best of them).  I've not listened to this album in many a year, but was very much looking forward to revisiting it.

And yeah, it's still great - I don't think people consider it as a classic 80s album, but it's totally up there with the best of them.  "Nobody's Diary" and "Softly Over" are classic opening tracks and the rest of it is no slouch with "Mr Blue" and "Walk Away From Love" being my favourites.  It's a very 80s sound, but subtly different from the usual 80s fare - mostly due to her voice, but there's also a bit more quirk in there than most (but not as much quirk as Upstairs At Erics, I seem to recall).  It's well worth checking out/revisiting as appropriate - and I, at one point, had a taped copy of it so we can leap up to 8.5/22.

We're at #5 in the charts this week in its fourth week of an 18 week run, having spent the previous two weeks at #1.  It managed a further two week run before disappearing from view in January '84.  Above it in the charts this week were The Beach Boys and The Jacksons (sigh), Paul Young and Big Country - the highest new entry in the charts was Howard Devoto (ex of Buzzcocks) all the way down there at #57.

Wikipedia has more on the album than you might expect - most of it to do with it not being the happiest of recordings.  Vince wanted to quit Yazoo after Upstairs At Eric's, but was convinced that having done the same thing from Depeche Mode that he should stick it out for at least one more album.  So he did, but it's fair to say his heart wasn't in it with minimal interaction with Alison and absolutely no promotional work, leaving it all to her.  It also reminds me that, although I think of Yazoo as "Vince with Alison singing" that's completely unfair and the songwriting was split between the pair of them.

There are also a couple of interesting side facts - Alison refused to sing "Happy People" (I've no idea why) and a cover of "Mr Blue" by Rene Klijn was #1 in The Netherlands for six weeks in 1993 - he was dying of AIDS and wanted the song to be his musical testament.  It also points out that the album cover is two dalmatians fighting in the snow - I'd never noticed that!  Critical reception was mostly positive, tinged with sadness they were splitting and the commercial reception was better than I expected globally.

"Customers also listened to" The Communards, Soft Cell and Blancmange - an intriguing mix.  Like those acts, this album was exactly the sort of thing I wanted from this exercise - a welcome reminder of forgotten past glories.  If you've not heard it, then check it out.

24/07/83 - Not nearly as good as I remembered
07/08/83 - A strong album