Stylus has asked some of our favorite writers to talk about their favorite songs each week. Today, we present Scott Woods’ favorite three songs of the moment.
Scott Woods lives in Toronto and is the editor of rockcritics.com and the co-author of I Wanna Be Sedated: Pop Music in the Seventies, you should buy it. Without further ado:
When Todd asked me to host this gig, it took me about 30 seconds to decide which songs I would choose. These digitally-enhanced ballads from 1988—which I have a feeling is the beginning of the end for this particular kind of song (tell me I’m wrong, please!)—are maybe the most heavily-rotated 7″ singles in my collection. I’m more than happy to give them a public airing here—to spread the love, as it were.
Al B. Sure!- Nite and Day, [In Effect Mode]
#7 on Billboard’s pop chart and #1 on R&B, so this isn’t exactly obscure, though I’m guessing that it’s been largely forgotten about (I don’t recall hearing a shout-out to Al B. in “Slow Jamz,” but maybe I missed that part). There’s a little bit of Al Green in Sure!’s approach (that verging-on-euphoric falsetto), and a whole lot of that other Green fellow, Gartside, as well. Which is to say that for all its twitchy rhythmic affectations—a prickly keyboard stab here, a fluttering hi-hat there—”Nite and Day” achieves the same sort of silky grandeur that Scritti Politti do in their wonderful ballad, “A Little Knowledge,” though this is more direct: no flip-flopping or “subversive feminism” on Al B’s part whatsoever (not that I can detect, not that I even know what that means). Produced by Kyle West, whom I’m ashamed to say I’d never even heard of prior to looking this up; I’ve always just assumed it was Teddy Riley.
[visit an unofficial Al B. Sure! website here, buy In Effect Mode here]
Nu Shooz– Should I Say Yes, [Told U So]
The first single from Nu Shooz’s Told U So, and the follow-up to the great Top 40 Miami-style dance hits, “I Can’t Wait” and “Point of No Return.” Inexplicably, maybe even criminally, it failed to repeat the success of those hits, peaking at #41 (”and shortly after Nu Shooz was not heard from”, i80s.com sadly informs). Ridiculously melodic (the “so many reasons” hook is like a summation of every great S.O.S. Band record ever made), this too’s a bit Scritti-like, especially that sprinkly, high-end, arpeggiated synth thing that runs through the background, a sound so subtle and mysterious I could listen to it on Repeat, forever. Valerie Day’s vocal is nicely understated, and the glistening, delayed, slightly dissonant piano rhythm may or may not have perked up the ears of Hank Shocklee (more likely just a cool synchronicity: “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos” also came out in ‘88). Not to be too casual with the reference points here: in every other respect, this is about as far from Public Enemy as you can possibly get—a song not for the streets, but for the bedroom. At night, and all alone.
[read Nu Shooz’s i80s.com biography here, buy Told U So here]
Bardeux– When We Kiss, [Bold As Love]
This actually reached # 36 on Billboard, but who bought it? And where’d they (”they” meaning Bardeux—two caucasian girls and a producer, I seem to recall) go? The crack of thunder that kicks things off here indicates that you are in for an ominous ride, and indeed you are, though it’s a quiet and pretty sort of ominous rather than a menacing and throbbing sort of ominous. A face-against-a-windowpane-in-the-rain sort of ominous rather than the hand-behind-the-shower-curtain sort. Said ominousness is underscored by the lyrical ellipses in the chorus (”And when we kiss…/ It feels like this…”), and the synth patch labelled “snake charmer” lends it a mildy exotic flavour. The whole thing may strike some as being a bit on the precious or twee side—and their rapping? let’s just say charm outweighs presence five to one—but you gotta admit, that 808 beat is completely adorable.
[read Bardeux’s allmusic.com biography here, buy Bold as Love here]
Note: These tracks are no longer available for download.