Oh, its a long time since I saw you - well you know how time can fly

Continuing my trip back through the 1988 album charts.

17/01/88 : Raindancing - Alison Moyet


Our first solo visit with Alf, as though of us of a certain age still think of her - I have heard this and seem to recall it's OK without really being my sort of thing. It is however, one "we" owned bringing us to eleven for the year.

Yeah, it's not really my sort of thing - without me really being able to say why. They're all nice enough songs which are done well and she's got a lovely voice, but it all sounds a bit "try hard" - it's a very US friendly sound, certainly when compare with the Yazoo output. I remembered "Weak In The Presence Of Beauty" but I'd completely forgotten "Is This Love?" which was huge at the time - "Ordinary Girl" and "When I Say (No Giveaway)" were the other tracks that stood out for me, but I generally thought it was all perfectly bearable without really grabbing me.

We're all the way down at #17 in the charts this week on her eighth week of a 21 week run, which came a month after a thirty week run, in which it peaked at #2 for its first two weeks, kept off the top by Now! 9. The top five this week were Johnny Hates Jazz (a new entry - how did that ever get to #1?), Wet Wet Wet, Terence Trent D'Arby, The Christians and Michael Jackson with the next highest new entry being Sinead O'Connor all the way down at #96.

Wikipedia tells us this is her second album and it was produced by Jimmy Iovine (who doesn't feel like a very Alison Moyet kinda prodcer) and was recorded while she was living out in LA for a year (which doesn't feel like a very Alison Moyet kinda place) - Ms Moyet has herself commented that "what was written as jangly, English irony got the American session, pop treatment". There is an interesting factoid in there - "Is This Love?" was co-written with Dave Stewart from The Eurythmics, but he's credited as Jean Guiot to prevent issues with his publishers. The critical reception was pretty split across the Atlantic with the Yanks loving it and the Brits saying "Hmmm - it's a bit too American" - for me Gay Times got it right with "it's not that it's a bad album, it's just not very 'Moyet' in places". Commercially, it did pretty well globally, getting to #1 in Norway and New Zealand, but only struggled to #94 in the US.

discogs.com tells us you can pick up a copy for a quid but if you want a Japanese version then it's going to set you back £37.39 exactly! I thought was a nice memory jogger without being something I'll ever rush back to - she certainly had a lovely voice though (and still has!).

10/07/88 - Far more fun than I feel the need for
24/01/88 - Very of its time

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