Scritti Politti
Cupid & Psyche 85

THE REVIEW

The argument of "it was better before" doesn't hold up with Scritti Politti by Green Gartside and David Gamson, who release their unmatched masterpiece in 1985. Green Gartside, political commitment and Gramscian writings, drugs and culture, always tidy living room and a skeleton perpetually with a book in hand. Someone who writes a pop album in '82 and slips in a piece dedicated to a deconstructionist philosopher. Or who writes lines like "The weakest link in every chain, I always want to find it/The strongest words in each belief, and find out what's behind it". Someone who in '78 was convinced he had said it all, while others were kicking him in the butt to move forward. Strictly after a community assembly where the new programs are explained.

Masterpiece, as was said. In the year of "Songs to Remember" comes out "Thriller" and it's half a revolution. Here's the emaciated leader trying again on the second attempt over the long haul, perhaps with some pop doses in addition; even better if made in the Jackson household. Gartside unleashes a timeless falsetto, supported by barrage of sequencers and futuristic arrangements. Mind you, we are still talking about pop: a pop certainly more commercial (my god, what a bad word!) than the debut album, but certainly no less refined. Can commercial and refined go together? Of course, they can. Try not to shake your booty to Perfect Way or Don't Work That Hard. Or not to swoon over the heavenly intro of Absolute, keyboard-heavy keys and heavily pumped bass. Dance culture was the proposal back then, a long dance floor on which our sweaty feet dried on the verses of The Word Girl - "then your blood and your flesh turned into word", to celebrate the deepest essence of the female genre.

Sure, today it's not easy to watch the video for Perfect Way, with that swaying blonde tuft that seems to pop out of the screen. But knowing that shortly after the same lanky guy could sing A Little Knowledge - again, love as knowledge, "now I know that loving you is not knowing you" - soothes all the curses thrown towards those terrible Eighties.

Because all of us have at least once in our life prayed in bed like Aretha Franklin.