Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Hardly fashionable, but my Oldie of the Week is OMD's "So In Love," their first of four American Top 40 hits. Everyone knows "If You Leave," which then and now I've always found one of the worst beloved hits of all time -- garish and obvious, from the synthesized percussion to the breathy way in which the vocalist (I can't tell them apart) sings "Seven years went under the bridge/Like time was standing still" as if it took seven years under the bridge to come up with the lines. Since I'm lukewarm on many of OMD's early electro ditties, the straightforwardness of "So In Love" often grabbed me whenever I heard it (not often). I love how the synth-strings outrace the piano line, with Andy McCluskey barely holding the high notes; the song, like his rapture, gets away from him, barely returning to earth in the final minute before lifting him to the English Electro-Gloss Heaven populated by the likes of Roxy Music's "Over You" and New Order's "True Faith." Speaking of which, Stephen Hague had a hand in shaping this one; his reins-holding here reminds me of what he'd do two years later on "True Faith": constructing sturdy but porous blocks of electronic sound that insulated the band from their own excesses but allowed their conviction to seep through.

No comments: