Music Banter - View Single Post - The Anthill 2.0: Albums, Artists & The Chance To Win A Million Dollars!

Anteater · 05-23-2014, 05:28 PM

^ You should definitely revisit it. And I didn't hate that Anthrax record, but it doesn't measure up to what I thought it should have been either.

Coincidentally, today marks the 24th anniversary of Iron Maiden hitting #1 on the charts with 'Fear Of The Dark' back in 1992.

And speaking of today (May 23rd), today also marks the anniversary of one of my favorite band debut's #1 chartage back in 1987...

Swing Out Sister - It's Better To Travel (1987)

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Genre: Sophisti-pop, New Wave, Funk, Soul, "New Romantic"

Why You Should Care: Killer blend of jazzy Motown funk/soul and 80's dance pop. Their other albums are even better!

Besides Tears For Fears, I don't think there's another 80's pop group I enjoy to the extent of Swing Out Sister...and I'm the biggest 80's fanatic I know, lol!

Commercially, I think these guys were always a bit too good for the mainstream in some respects. Despite briefly charting in the late 80's thanks to the song 'Breakout', they remain criminally underrated worldwide beyond the U.K. (except in Japan, where they have a huge following even now), and yet have been prolific all the way here to the present day with excellent album after album. On top of that they've successfully evolved and incorporated other genres (trip-hop, neo-soul, etc.) into their sound over a twenty-some year period without ever compromising their core strengths. That's not a feat any band or artist can boast after decades of time, and yet SOS made it look easy.

Anyway, today marks the 27th anniversary of Swing Out Sister hitting #1 on the charts with this 1987 opus It's Better To Travel, hence why I'm reviewing it. Within their big canon of music, this debut is without a doubt the one that sounds most like its "era", but the music is so remarkably assured and well crafted that you wouldn't really peg SOS for a bunch of newbies who got done with their first album. I think this confidence and ease is rooted in the synergy between singer Corinne Drewery, whose suave pipes would have made her a perfect fit as an opener for any classic James Bond film, and keyboardist Andy Connell. He's got a great tonal palette and his skills are such that the deeper cuts like 'Twilight World' sound positively huge, and he's the force behind a lot of these tunes as the main composer.

Bouncy lead single 'Breakout' is probably the only song anyone might be familiar with here: it's been featured in the Grand Theft Auto series and has probably graced a few TV serials out there from time to time too. Not hard to hear why it caught on really: the chorus has a really cool choral lead in, plus it's very affirming and positive in the lyrical sense as well.

This leads into the early acid jazz tour-de-force of 'Twilight World', complete with a rock solid bongo backing rhythm and a waltz-like chord progression. Connell's synthboarding here is very orchestral and elegiac, giving the tune a strange but snazzy atmosphere. It's the sound of 1987 somehow transported back into the Overlook Hotel circa 1926, and its one of the album's biggest highlights for me.

This is followed up by a series of excellent albeit more typical-of-the-era synth pop numbers like 'Blue Mood' and 'Surrender'. However, a few standouts like the moody, downtempo 'After Hours', its Gothic counterpart 'Communion', and the punchy, electric guitar shred-led 'It's Not Enough' are very interesting songs. What you'll probably notice at this point is that Corrine (our 60's hairstyled lead songstress) is pretty good with certain lyrical themes, mediating upon people lost in life, lost in love, or people who are distraught in general. None of it is completely removed from usual pop fare by any means, but she brings so much personality to the wandering emotions that populate these songs that you'll probably dig 'em anyway.

For me, pop music from any decade is best when its trying to dig around or be something more than an endless succession of 3 minute singles. The amount of effort SOS put into establishing their soundscapes and overall atmosphere from album to album is both astounding and a thing of beauty. After all, its the nuances and details that decides if an album will survive into the distant future, and '87 was as tough a year as any other to accomplish that sort of feat. In light of that, It's Better To Travel succeeds brilliantly. And at the very least, its a lot more than just a 'Breakout'.