ASSOCIATES: THE GLAMOUR CHASE (1988)
1) Reach The Top; 2) Heart Of
Glass; 3) Terrorbeat; 4) Set Me Up; 5) Country Boy; 6) Because You Love; 7) The
Rhythm Divine; 8) Snowball; 9) You'd Be The One; 10) Empires Of Your Heart; 11)
In Windows All; 12) Heaven's Blue; 13) Take Me To The Girl.
Even the record company failed to find enough
trust in this album: upon completion, it was rejected by the label and
remained unreleased until 2003, when it was finally given the green light during
a general campaign to remaster and re-release the entire Associates catalog.
The only difference is that the label did not see the album as «commercial»;
me, I just don't see it as «interesting» or «inspired». Or could that be the
same thing? Sometimes, at least?..
It is odd, because some of the ingredients are
still there. Mackenzie still got his voice, his personal problems and
sentiments, and some desire to experiment. The whole thing is not «just» another
synth-pop crapfest. But when your work happens to be within the synth-pop
idiom, tremendously strong vitaminization
is required to make stuff work. Perhaps
still had plenty of exciting ingredients. The
Glamour Chase has next to none.
ʽReach The Topʼ, for instance, is the worst
start-off number in Associates history so far: other than the chorus vocals, it
has nothing even vaguely reminiscent of a hook, and even the vocals are
delivered in a flat, lifeless way, without making use of Mackenzie's impressive
potential. Basically, it is just a song that could have been done by any generic act of the era — possibly an
attempt on Billie's part to really go «commercial» and give the club kids a
fresh butt-wiggler. The shame, the awful shame.
Likewise, what was the point of covering
Blondie's ʽHeart Of Glassʼ? It's not just that the original already was pure
disco perfection; it's that the song cannot possibly benefit from a Mackenzie
touch, unlike, say, ʽLove Hangoverʼ — its superficially happy sarcasm cannot be
re-molded into an Associates-type pattern, and it isn't. It's just a stupid,
overlong, completely unnecessary cover, probably feeding off the assumption
that people may need to be reminded of how cool it was to dance to
disco-Blondie in a past era. A tenth anniversary tribute to the song or
something.
The only tunes here that are at least
marginally interesting are those that try to cross synth-pop with older genres.
ʽCountry Boyʼ turns the chorus into a «traditional» crooner-fest; and ʽSnowballʼ
dives into cabaret territory (a thing that Robert Smith, however, had already
done much better with ʽLovecatsʼ). But even these little tactical victories are
nullified when seven-minute long monsters like ʽIn Windows Allʼ come along and
bore you with slow, draggy, pompous synthesizer minimalism — few things are
more evil than a solemn synth-pop epic devoid of mind-blowing chord sequences
to justify the size.
In the end, all that remains is just a small
bunch of cherries — a cool violin twist here, a juicy bass pluck there, and
some vocal parts that will be definitely appreciated by Billy fans (ʽThe Rhythm
Divineʼ is fairly soulful — if only the music were in the least bit interesting
as well). In general, though, the well is running dry; had the album remained
in the vaults forever, the world would hardly have missed a chance to become a
better place than it already is. Thumbs down, although, if Billy Mackenzie is
your soul brother, you will probably still want to scrape some soul off the
bottom of this barrel as well.
Yeah, this is where I give up. I treat all their previous albums with various degrees of affection (though it is clear, George, that you thumbed them up out of sheer politeness), but this stuff is just flat out banal. Nothing embarrassing, but The Glamour Chase is your one-simensional synth pop. "The Rhythm Divine" is passable, "Heart Of Glass" is a nice cover (I do agree that Mackenzie doesn't bring much to it - but a good song is a good song), and I have a very soft spot for "Snowball". Speaking of which: not sure what you mean by that "Lovecats" remark. Associates had been deep in cabaret territory since late 70's. I do of course love "The Lovecats", but saying Smith outdid them at that cabaret thing is taking things too far.
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