The reason is that I'm listening to The Lexicon of Love on headphones and I've just listened to All of My Heart as loud as I can stand. Isn't this song just the best fucking thing ever recorded? EVERYTHING about the track is perfect. Fry's vocals, the lyrics, the best intro ever - *that* opening chord, the piano arpeggios, David Palmer's thunderous snare thwack and skittering hi-hat, and the fretless bass prowling beneath. Fretless bass! - this track reclaims this godforsaken instrument from the clutches of the be-ponytailed session fop and turns it into a the sexiest sound imaginable.
The production - have keyboards ever sounded so epic and grand, yet without any trace of pomp? Anyone needs convincing that Horn is fucking god? Just play the 5 or so seconds after the first chorus which lead into the second verse about 5 different keyboard sounds collide and and burst into fragments. No, play ANY five seconds of this track.
Fry - a massive, massive voice, yet able to switch from despair to pleading to anger in a syllable. Listen the verse 2 "You'll be disappointed and I'll lose a friend" - oh God, overwhelming!
The strings - listen to the way they fade *slightly* 2/3 of the way through the chorus as Fry sings "Surrending, Remembering.." Also, the actual chords Ann Dudley uses for the string arrangement - simple, yet with a couple of twists which lift the vocals and let them fall.
I've lived with this album, this track for 20 years and it always has a similar effect. As well as the brilliance of the track itself it has, along with The Human League's 'Love Action', the ability to hit me with a feeling of nostalgia so tangible that I'm having to pinch myself to be sure that the last 20 years have really happened. I'm looking at my work colleagues, looking across at their desks and they're ghosts, strangers. From Martin Fry's opening line I'm back at University, walking across campus in the cold towards the lights of the Students Union. I'm with a group of friends - the girls look great, the boys are mucking about to impress, we've had a few drinks already and tonight we'll drink and dance and kiss and cry till we drop. That's the way I still feel. That's the way Martin Fry makes me feel. That's the way music makes me feel. I don't know what the question that I meant to ask is.
― Dr. C, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Best thread ever. No question
Prefer Poison Arrow though...
― Zanny G, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Jeff W, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Me too.
― Mike Ratford, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Daniel, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Martin Skidmore, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― , Friday, 22 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 22 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Dr. C, Friday, 22 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Andy K, Friday, 22 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― ethan, Wednesday, 22 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― cuba libre (nathalie), Wednesday, 22 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
Near the end. The only time Fry's voice is alone on the whole record. Close-miked (cf. "The Chase" by Propaganda). As if he too is breathing his last. David Blaine extracting his bloody heart and collapsing on the studio floor. There is no resolution. The voiceless "Look of Love pt 4" plays the record out like intermission music in a cinema whose purpose has been somewhat mislaid.
The sequel was six months beforehand - "Give Me Back My Heart."
― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 22 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Dr. C, Wednesday, 22 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
You can write to me, virtanen87@yahoo.com
Päivi from Finland
― Päivi Virtanen, Wednesday, 5 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)
I don't know should I buy the 2.99 copy or the shop-attendant-scuffed 1.99 copy? I probably won't play it, haha, that funny 'Poison Heart' song, that’ll probably make me laugh a little, the way he coos at the back end of the chorus. And I’ll probably want a Mint Crisp when I get to the top of the road, and Special Offer Irn-Bru, I’ll need to keep some money back, and I probably won’t play it anyway. Probably won’t play it, just listen to that song, knee-deep in mystery, the Dylan one, 2nd in on ‘John Wesley Harding’ where he steps out into the air around Tom Paine. Dr. C said he liked it, but. No, probably won’t play it.
Let’s write the coda to two year’s “what ifs”, talk about picking hail-damaged pears in New England, about the girl who called you “bumps” (“Bumps”! I couldn’t believe it), discussions about amicable numbers, and tickling, the whole numb feeling of sitting in love, left alone with nothing but the memory of her scent. And, in summer, drafting through town in the car, Martin Fry in the seat beside me, pulling up alongside her, her unaware, All of My Heart remembering everything. And, now, sitting alone, with the cool orange of Glasgow’s streetlight, the bottom falling out of my heart, the record settling into its finish, I’ll lie down next to Fry in the run-out groove.
A heart. Broken. Unfixable. For sale. No use. Call(0141) 465873. Work awkward hours: keep calling.
― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 20 March 2003 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)
― Cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 20 March 2003 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)
No, but it is a truly great track nevertheless. :-)
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 20 March 2003 23:28 (twenty-two years ago)
― Cozen (Cozen), Friday, 21 March 2003 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)
My personal fave is The Look of Love (...." they say Martin maybe one day you'll find true love..... huhhh...I say.... maybe..."....simply orgasmic. What a superb vocal. Reminds me of being in school, religiously buying 7" singles, carefully playing them over and over, putting them in plastic protection sleeves and smelling the glossy sleeves.... oh how I miss the 7" single.
And there are other fine ABC albums, too. How to be a Millionaire was wonderful, zappy, pastiche pop, and the title track still stands as a brilliant number one-that-never-was. Great 12" mix, too.
I just lost interest when they turned schmaltzy and MOR.... 'When Smokey Sings' is simply dreadful, and the whole of the 'Up' album simply shouldn't have happened.
Has Fry recovered from cancer now? I hope so - wonderful man.
― russ t, Friday, 21 March 2003 13:54 (twenty-two years ago)