Ace Audio: "Always Something There to Remind Me" - Naked Eyes

With my last post talking about two songs that really show the power of music, I thought it would be fitting to talk about a song that, while may not be a classic, really resonates with me on a personal level. I remember the first time I heard this song was when I got a compelation CD of 80's British classics from my step-dad, although it was not the last song on the disc, I usually stopped the CD after it.

Although the song begins with a fast percussion beat, it really starts with a nice ringing of bells and a musical style that accompanies this. This is interesting because the bells could be Church bells, signifying a wedding, a funearl or the passage of time, and neither are surprisingly the less cheery option as you will find as the song goes on.

Lyrically, the singer is remembering someone, most likely somebody he loved. Whether they just drifted apart or if worse happened, it's not clear, but what is clear is that the memory remains, in a sense she'll always be a part of him.

That is the part that resonates with me the most, and this is where the song becomes an Ace Audio for me. This is going to get a little personal.

You see, as a child I moved to three different schools, and I spent the longest time at the second one, that's where I met a lot of friends. Even though it has been literal years, possibly even a full decade since I've last seen them, I'm always going to remember them, my time with them has become mere memory to me, but they are very strong memories and I could never forget them.

I guess this song really brings forth the memories of my friends and the things we did. Although I have made more friends in the past, some of which may be stronger than my friends of childood, I can never let the memory go, and I personally don't want to.

This is what makes the song special to me, and I know that the point of the song is not what I ascribe to it, but that is what the song means to me, and isn't the interpretation of the listener just as valid as the interpretation of the writer?

To give you an idea of how personal this song is to me, it's currently in my top ten favourite songs of all time. To give you some perspective, "Tom Sawyer", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Octavarium" and "Stairway to Heaven" are also in my top ten, they all rank higher than this song yes, but they are still in my personal favourite songs list.

That really goes to show the power that music has, it makes me remember things, feel things, learn things. Music is the mixture of writing, performace and audience centered art, and this is in my opinion, one of the songs that perfectly captures that. It is not a perfect song, hey, it might not even be a good song, but I would be lying if I said it isn't a personal favourite.

I'm te Entity of Darkness, and it's fitting that this is the end to my Ace Audio mini-marathon.

Auditory Abominations: "Mickey" - Toni Basil (80's Marathon Finale)

Alright, last song of this marathon. After this I'm going to go to a song far from this decade.

Anyway, Hey Mickey! Yeah this song is um... something. Okay, look the 80s were weird. From our punk rap song, to that news reading dance song and also to odd songs like "Mexican Radio" and "Throw the 'R' Away". I like to say that the 1980s was the decade you could get away with anything in music. In fact, there is still so much 80s weirdness I haven't even looked at yet. I will end up doing a review of songs like "Dog Police" and I dunno insert weird obscure song from the 1980s here.

I think that it is only fair that I look at one of the more well known weird songs, and this one is not exactly weird for the same reasons something like "Dog Police" is weird, it's weird in a different way, to put it simply, if this song was released in the 2010s, sure it will still be shite, but it would have been a touch less weird. Remember, this was the 1980s, when we had the music video for "Land of Confusion", Kenny G had a number one hit this decade, and The Proclaimers released their first two albums in this decade as well. So, what makes this song so weird? Well, it may have completely kick started the 1980s. what do I mean by that? I mean that 1980 and 1981 were just like the left-overs of the 1970s, I mean what was popular at that time? "Cars", "Rock With You", "Celebration" you get the idea, songs that sound more at home in a decade like the 1970s, in fact a lot of it actually was from the 1970s, and then 1982 happened, when we got this, The Human League, and the best song of the early 80s, "Physical". 1982 may just be the oddest year of the 1980s.

But that is all why this song is weird, why is song bad? Well, there is one major reason, and the song opens with that major reason. Cheerleader chanting! Cheerleaders only work in high sporting events because the energy is already high there, and even then nobody really likes their cheering, their pretty much just there because eye candy. Also, the opening drum beat is... I don't want to say it's repetitive, especially since most drum beats are, but that is why they are not the prominent instrument in a song, and when they do open a song, they often change the drum beat in the song like with Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel the Noize".

The opening synth isn't terrible, it's annoying but that is just my disdain for synth speaking. There are some good and stylized synth songs out there, this isn't one of them, but it is passable for what it is.

You know, aside from that this is not really the worst song of the 1980s, I mean it's mindless and annoying, but it is not as annoying as "We Built This City". It's uninteresting but not as much as "Glory of Love". Essentially, this is just an upbeat pop song of the 1980s, although there is something interesting to talk about. This song is a gender bent cover!

A "Gender Bent Cover" is a cover song that swaps the gender around, think Aretha Franklin's cover of "Respect" and even Joan Jett's cover of "I Love rock and Roll". Essentially take a song from one gender, and reverse it, like Soft Cell's cover of "Tainted Love".

The original song was not called "Mickey" it was actually called "Kitty" by the band Racey in 1979, and was absent from having a cheerleader chant. Now, this song also sucks, but it is not as obnoxious and at the very least "Oh Kitty what a pity" sounds better than "Oh Mickey what a pity". So yeah, I'd much rather listen to this version than the cover. So how many awful covers does that lead me up to? Really, only four? Hmm... I'm doing better at avoiding awful covers than I thought.

Anyway, the lyrics in both are general lovey dovey crap, "You take me by the heart when you take me by the hand", how mushy. That really is it, like I said, not the most interesting of songs.

So, final verdict? "Mickey" is the worse version, since it added in an obnoxious cheerleader chant. Even then, the song is just a dull love song that is only remembered because of said cheerleader chant.

And that concludes my 80's marathon. Despite the choices I picked, this was kind of fun, I loved looking at a lot of these songs almost forgotten to time. I don't think I can pick out one worse song from my Abominations list, although right now "Funky Man" is taking the top spot.

Well, let's step away from the 1980s for a bit, and go back even further in time! I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I'm glad this 80's marathon is finally over!

Also, one last note, the music video is actually pretty fun.

Ace Audio: "Take on Me" - A-ha (80's marathon part 2/6)

The 1980s gave us a lot of music that was, very much reminiscent of the time. This is true for all decades, and most of the songs that are, let's say representative of their respective decade, aren't always the best. The problem with many of these songs is that they are outdated, which does not make an interesting review. Songs like "We Built This City" are bad songs, but not the most interesting kind of bad songs. A dated song that "Glycerine" is more interesting because it's problems were not common to songs of the era, "We Built This City" is a song that has problems that were common for the time, which makes it less interesting to review, and in some cases listen to. Songs that are outdated are generally those songs you put in the background for noise while you work, not to dissimilar to a podcast or a video review you've seen before, even I was watching a few reviews while writing this review.

Anyway, I bring this up because, one of the more interesting things to review are dated songs that are actually good.

"Take on Me" is a song that practically defines the 80s, you take one listen to this song and you immediately think 1980s, similar to how you hear "Eve of Destruction" and think 1960s. This is something you can do in any decade, at the risk of making your song dated. This is the surprising thing about this song though, although it is dated by a long time, it has also never aged a bit. Unlike a song like "Johnny B. Goode" which you can tell is from the fifties and yet also hasn't aged a bit, this song could not have been as successful as it was before or after the 1980s. The fact that it does not sound dated, and yet is completely dated is a baffling thought that could only have been pulled of in the 1980s. "Take on Me" is my favourite of these kinds of 80s songs, but there is also "Safety Dance", "Whip It", "Land of Confusion", "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)", "Mexican Radio" among many others. These are the songs that are obviously from the 1980s, and so unashamed of being from the 1980s that in a strange way, they actually become sort of timeless.

But what is a claim without a fact to back it up, short answer a YouTube Copyright claim. So, is this song still an 80's classic, or should we leave it in a box alongside Simon and our unsolved Rubik's Cubes. Seriously, who actually solved them in that day and age?

The song opens with a very catchy faux drum beat. I don't actually hate drum machines, sure I prefer real drums, but honestly, they don't bother me too much because they aren't often a big part in songs. Especially in a song like this, or something by Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker. Then, we get one of the most iconic and memorable synth lines of the 80s, NEIGH, of all time. How memorable is it? Pitbull sampled it for "Feel this Moment", to absolutely no avail, that was one of the worst songs of 2013.

Although the instrumentals give the song a very nice beat to it, the vocals are not to be overlooked. Morten Harket can range from very smooth to incredible high notes. The chorus is one of the most recognizable and memorable parts of the song. Everybody who has heard this has tried to replicate the very high notes Morten has used.

The instrumental break is also a very nice touch, I especially love the piano that kind of gives off a vibe that escalates into something tense. However, after that we get the iconic bit of the song once more, that synth riff is so good, and it's so damn catchy. It makes the song even better, one of the best songs of the 1980s, in my opinion.

I guess I should also talk about the lyrics, well, it's a love song and what don you expect it was an 80's pop hit. Not that they can't have lyrical depth or anything, I mean "Born in the USA" was a hit as was "Welcome to the Jungle", but the majority of them are songs about love, or related to love. It's telling when one of the songs that the 80's is known for is called "The Power of Love".

Yes, this song is dated, but it's dated in all of the best ways. Any generation can listen to it, and even if they will know it came from a different decade, it summarizes all of the best parts about said decade. The upbeat pop music, the unique vocalists and some of the catchiest music of all time.

Yes, this song holds up, even if not in the ways most songs hold up. I'm the Entity of Darkness, and the 80's marathon is just starting.