Early 1980s belonged to androgynous stars - Boy George and Annie Lennox were all the rage, attention grabbing image (with spiky, colourful hair) was the thing of the day and than new phenomenon of MTV thrived on all sorts of attitudes. In all that cornucopia of various music, synth-pop had some of the most famous representatives in two duets that inspired countless imitations, Eurhytmics and Yazoo, both fronted by powerful girl singers. The latter had amazing Alison Moyet with her unusual, distinctive timbre that actually initially confused me, since their record covers lacked artists's pictures I simply assumed this must be guy singing. After short burst of stardom, Yazoo disbanded and Moyet went solo, lo and behold, it turned out she is a woman. Kind of big, black, sassy mama, only actually white.
We all held our breath as Moyet went solo and it turned out huge smash, with at four mega hits. Where Yazoo had spectacularly nervous, jumpy energy, this collection was decidedly smoother pop, still graced with that monumental, soulful voice. Where many artists flounder without protective umbrella of their band, Moyet was clearly here to stay and she had such a strong presence that her solo career was not only undoubted but guaranteed. No cheap gimmicks or cheesecake pictures, this girl was all about powerful voice and strong material. Some might say that this 1984 album sounds dated today and surely you can place it squarely in mid-1980s but back than its production was cutting edge - synthesisers galore - and not only that it actually sounds even better than I remember the first time around, but it made us faithfully following her ever since. I am not nostalgic about 1980s at all, after all I lived trough the decade and know all the hits inside out but this is one of the rare 1980s albums I still love from the start to finish.
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