Alison Moyet
Raindancing

THE REVIEW

ON HER SECOND ALBUM, A BEAUTIFUL CONFIRMATION

It was difficult for our Alison Moyet to repeat an album of the caliber of her solo debut three years earlier: ALF (1984) remains unsurpassed (and will remain so even later), but it's not like this RAINDANCING is undeserving of praise, quite the opposite.

There are at least a couple of excellences: one being «Weak In The Presence Of Beauty» and the other «Is This Love?» opening the respective sides of the original long-playing, both achieving excellent sales performances in the UK. The first had already been released a year earlier with little success by the synth-pop duo Floy Joy, but compared to the original, Alison's cover has quite another depth and manages to give an almost universal value to our feeling of powerlessness (that "I'm so weak" mentioned in the title) in the face of beauty, which can be the beauty of the loved one, but also more generally a sort of "great beauty" before its time. In the other hit from this album - «Is This Love?» - there’s a musical touch from Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics (credited as Jean Guiot for contractual reasons) who was at the peak of his grace in those years; while Alison sings with a nice loose flair, somewhat like Morrissey, a story full of sensuality (“I want your lips to kiss and our limbs to entwine”).

In effect, love & seduction are the thread that links all the songs: some dark like the intimacy of lovers («Blow Wind Blow» where she in a whisper invokes "Take me / Take me"); others more tangible («When I Say / No Giveaway») singing the "after" of a clandestine love ("Just give me back my negatives / And I won’t tell your wife about last night") or the epilogue of a female passion («Ordinary Girl»).

The album title is evocative but I found no references to this rain dance in the songs; the lyrics (except "Weak …") are by Alison herself who also participates in the music for many tracks; production by Jimmy Iovine, not exactly a newcomer (pronounced the American way: aiovin, even though it sounds a bit funny!); graphics, information, and song lyrics: all in order; for the cover, a nothing-special photo by Richard Haughton, with the accompaniment of rain droplets requested by the title. In short, for Alison Moyet, a beautiful confirmation: she may not have been the Adele of the 80s, but this album is worth a purchase even today.