Ex-Yazoo singer Alison Moyet's recent album, 'The Minutes', was given a bit of dancefloor oomf with a universally brilliant remix follow-up, featuring the likes of YoungTEE, Brassica and Ali Renault. Following in their footsteps in complimenting the icon singer's distinctive vocal are Terry Farley and Leo Zero, working together under their Box Energy guise. Filled with warm bass and spring loaded percussion that contract the icy sentiments of the vocal, it captures the expansive production sound of big studio '80s pop while giving it some proper welly for the dancefloor. Best of all, they've given it to use exclusively to download free.
Courtesy of the Karpel Group, today's Swag Tuesday prize isthe minutes, the new album by former Yaz vocalist Alison Moyer which goes on sale nationwide today.
Her first album since 2007, the minutes was written with and produced by Guy Sigsworth, known for his work with Robyn, Frou Frou, Björk, Goldie, and Madonna. Experimental, captivating, and entirely cohesive, this is beauty with an edge. Clearly indicating a new artistic lease of life, the minutes is arguably Alison's most creative album. It has subtle parallels to her synth-pop past but is also bang up-to-date, taking in elements of high-end pop smashes, R&B, modern club sounds, and electronic experimentation.
We have three copies of the minutes to give away. Enter to win by commenting on this post. Only enter once and please remember to leave an email address in your comment. Entries close at midnight on Thursday, west coast time. Publicists: If you'd like to take part in Swag Tuesday on JMG, please email me.
It took me half the day to watch this fantastic 2009 documentary because it kept sending me spinning off into Wikipedia and YouTube holes. It's a bit strange that so many of the records that I thought was randomly picking out of the import 45s bin turned out to be such groundbreaking and influential tracks. And most of them I purchased unheard, usually basing my decision on the label, the producer, and most often - the hairstyle. I missed my calling.
The Flying Pickets, Only You, 1983. In 1980 Vince Clarke was going through two divorces, one with his wife and one with Depeche Mode. It's not known which divorce inspired Only You, but when Clarke's former band declined to record it, he brought the track with him to Yaz/Yazoo. As the new band's first release, in 1982 he and vocalist Alison Moyet took it to #2 in the UK and #67 in America, where the single's b-side, Situation, was also released separately as a 12", hitting #1 on Billboard's dance chart. The following year British acapella group The Flying Pickets (whose name indicated support for England's striking miners) covered Only You, taking it to #1 for five weeks in the UK, where it remains a Christmas-time radio classic. In 1984 the group returned to the UK Top Ten with an acapella cover of the Marvelette's 1967 smash When You're Young And In Love, but the act never had another hit. The Flying Pickets' Only You remains the UK's only acapella #1 hit single. Bobby McFerrin's 1988 single Don't Worry, Be Happy is the only such song to reach #1 in the states, but purists point out that McFerrin's track employs multiple overdubbings and cannot be performed live. Only You has been covered by many other artists, including Judy Collins, Rita Coolidge, and Enrique Inglesias. My favorite version is the one below. Dig the groovy hairstyles.
CORRECTION!: Sharp readers point out that the Housemartins' 1986 acapella cover of the Isley Brothers' Caravan Of Love also reached #1 in the UK - something not mentioned on the recap of acapella hit singles I used for this post. D'oh!
Last night Aaron and I attended the first of three NYC shows by Yaz (Yazoo to you Brits) as they close out the American leg of their Reconnected reunion tour. It's been over 25 years since Alison Moyet and Vince Clark released the second of their meager two album output, but you wouldn't have known that by the reaction of the audience at the sold-out show at Terminal 5 in Hell's Kitchen. People sang, they swayed, they waved, Alison beamed - it was a total love fest.
The duo played pretty much every song from their two classic albums (1982's Upstairs At Eric's and 1983's You And Me Both), as well as my personal favorite State Farm, which was the non-album b-side to the show's opener, Nobody's Diary. Alison Moyet sounded amazing. A-mazing. You would never ever dream it's been 26 years since Situation blew the roof off every gay club in the world. Vince Clark stayed in his usual stoic Erasure-mode, occasionally lending a vocodered vocal over his very slightly re-worked versions of their beloved catalog.
The audience, as might be expected, consisted primarily of gay men in their late 30's - late 50's, guys who once danced to Yaz in shiny buckled shoes as they tossed their blue-black asymmetrical bangs out of their mascara'd eyes. But last night they waved their heavily tatted arms over their shaven/bald/salt-and-pepper heads and sang along to every song. Who knew so many people knew all the words to Winter Kills and Ode To Boy? (The link to Ode To Boy is a performance clip from last night already on YouTube.) During the encore of their immortal Only You, somebody in the front of the audience passed out a couple of hundred red paper hearts, which the audience waved slowly over their heads, bringing Alison to visible tears. It was lovely.I've seen Vince Clark many times as part of Erasure, of course, and I'd seen Alison perform solo at SF Pride in '99, but like probably everyone else last night, I'd never seen them as Yaz. Now all I need is a proper Alison Moyet solo tour so I can hear Love Resurrection, Invisible, or my all-time Moyet favorite, the uber-fabulous Whispering Your Name.
Terminal 5 Set List:Nobody's Diary, Bad Connection, Mr. Blue, Good Times, Tuesday, Ode To Boy, Goodbye 70s, Too Pieces, In My Room, Anyone, I Before E Except After C, Walk Away From Love, State Farm, Sweet Thing, Winter Kills, Midnight, Unmarked, Bring Your Love Down (Didn't I), Don't Go. ENCORE: Only You, Situation.
Below is my blurry, shaky video of Don't Go, the last song before the encore. I pan around a bit at the end so you can get a sense of the crowd and the venue. Ah, the venue! I kept saying to Aaron, "This place would make a GREAT nightclub!" Then it finally dawned on me that it had been a club, Exit, and that I'd been there many times five or six years ago. Time has not been as kind to my memory as it has been to Alison Moyet's voice.
Yaz plays Terminal 5 again tonight and closes the tour at the Beacon Theater on Saturday. Get there. Or wait another 25 years.
Six U.S. dates have been announced for the Yaz reunion tour I mentioned here last month.
Jul 07 - Oakland, CA Paramount Theatre Jul 10 - Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theatre Jul 11 - Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theatre Jul 14 - Chicago, IL Chicago Theatre Jul 16 - New York, NY Terminal 5 Jul 17 - New York, NY Terminal 5
Ticketmaster starts selling the U.S. dates on Friday. I'm told that tickets for the NYC shows will be $65, a bit pricey in my opinion, but it's not like I'm gonna wait another 25 years for the next tour.
Fab 80's pop music duo Yaz (Yazoo in the UK) is set to reunite for a tour of the UK in June. Comprised of (post-Depeche Mode/pre-Erasure) keyboardist Vince Clark and (Andy Bell sound-alike) Alison Moyet, Yaz only put out two albums, both huge favorites of mine: Upstairs At Eric's and You And Me Both.
The tour is in support of In Your Room, a "4-disc box set which includes remasters and 5.1 stereo mixes of both of Yazoo's classic albums (Upstairs At Eric's and You And Me Both), b-sides, remixes and a DVD featuring new interviews with Clarke and Moyet, along with the promo videos for Don't Go, The Other Side Of Love, Nobody's Diary, Situation (1990) and Only You (1999)."
Here's a clip of Yaz performing their smash hit, Don't Go.
After Yaz broke up, my friends and I became obsessive collectors of Alison Moyet's fantastic solo work, which featured such unforgettable classics as Love Resurrection, Invisible, and All Cried Out. Here's my all-time favorite Moyet track, Whispering Your Name, a song written by Jules Shear. Moyet doesn't change the lyrics, making it appear that she's singing about another woman. The clip features the always hilarious Dawn French, of the pre-AbFab duo French & Saunders, trying to make Moyet crack up during the song.
A better mix of Whispering Your Name can be found on this fantastic live performance clip. Oh, that last note! I last saw Moyet perform on the main stage at SF Pride 1999. Here's hoping the Yaz tour comes to the States. By the way, Alison Moyet is a blogger.
