ASSOCIATES: WILD AND LONELY (1990)
1) Fire To Ice; 2) Fever; 3)
People We Meet; 4) Just Can't Say Goodbye; 5) Calling All Around The World; 6)
The Glamour Chase; 7) Where There's Love; 8) Something's Got To Give; 9)
Strasbourg Square; 10) Ever Since That Day; 11) Wild And Lonely; 12) Fever In
The Shadows.
I do not understand why The Glamour Chase was rejected and Wild & Lonely was accepted. Or, rather, I do: because Billy was
dropped by WEA and went to some obscure minor label instead. Which had nothing
to do with the music on the record — most of which was awful. At least The Glamour Chase was a disappointing
failure; Wild & Lonely is just
an annoying pimple on the pop music surface.
Two things are certain: (a) Billy Mackenzie
still got his pretty voice; (b) most of these songs are danceable. This is more
or less all the accolades I can screw out of my brain. It is hardly possible to
discuss individual songs, because how do you tell bubbly synth patterns one
from another? I doubt anyone will ever be interested in the tablature for any
of these songs.
Initially, there is serious temptation to trash
the whole thing as primitively disgusting «Eurodance». It takes several
listens to even begin to understand that Billy actually did take some care of the arrangements. For
instance, ʽFeverʼ, in addition to the basic chugging synth bass part, has
layers of pianos, (synthesized) strings, and (synthesized) harps, all of which
could theoretically add up to something distinctive. But they don't, because
none of the parts make any sense other than a «oh, that sounds too naked, let
me throw on some "artsiness" here».
Worse, it takes serious digging to clear a way
to Billy's heart — most of the songs are so utterly faceless, it's as if he'd
completely lost all sense of purpose. Why the heck does a thing like ʽCalling
Around The Worldʼ even exist? Its horn-driven theme is cheesy, its «happy«
vocals are phony, its chorus is unmemorable. Where are the angst and the
anguish? The despair and the disenchantment? The gloom and the glamour? Shame, shame, shame.
If you suffer long enough, you may get a mild,
inadequate reward in the guise of the title track, which completes the record
in a soft-jazz / adult-contemporary mode. As the electronic drumming gets
softer and slightly «Latinized», the synth bass dies down to an echo, and
minimalistic piano chords and strings take center stage, Billy gives a tragic-romantic
delivery in the grand tradition of a Scott Walker (or a David Bowie, if you
prefer someone with advanced star power). Does it help much? No. It's just one last song, and it isn't very memorable, and
there is no way it would save the album from an inevitable thumbs down. But at least it
sounds natural, which is the last word I would want to associate with the rest
of this record.
After the predictable, and justifiable, flop of
the album — it might have helped if Billy were a hot young teenage girl in a
leotard, but no guarantee — Mackenzie finally had the good sense to retire the
«Associates» brand, a thing that he should have done at least three years
earlier (Perhaps can still be
qualified as an «Associates» record in spirit). As far as I know, having only
listened to brief snippets, his last solo album, Beyond The Sun, released just before or just after his suicide in
1997, somewhat reinstates his standing, moving away from generic dance-pop, but
I have no plans for a detailed review of Billy's solo career. It's too bad,
though, how the Associates thing ended — what began as an inspiring combination
of elements ended up ground and chewn in the stupid pop cliché machine: one
more victim of the mercyless Eighties.
Probably their finest album cover though.
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