Adored And Explored was the lead single from Marc Almond's
ninth album Fantastic Star, entering the UK singles chart at #25 in May
1995 and proving to be Marc's last Top 30 single to date.
The
video is very much of it's time, though it's an entertaining send up of
pop celebrity, from the 'dad dancing' and 'hand harmonica' miming at
the start, through to a multitude of costume changes, taking in Bowie,
Bolan, The Village People, Elvis, Alex from A Clockwork Orange, Boy
George and more. Almond is supported by a group of 'minders' straight
out of Reservoir Dogs, who amusingly break into a cod pogo and other bad
dancing in the closing section of the song.
The harmonica on Adored And Explored is played by David Johansen and the song was co-written with John Coxon, better known (to me, at least) as one half of Spring Heel Jack and member of Spiritualized.
Is that a combination I thought I would never hear about? Marc Almond and Ian Anderson? Whatever next? Francis Rossi and Stormzy?
ReplyDeleteHa ha, I know what you mean, Mike. I don't have an overwhleming urge to hear Marc's live rendition of The Witch's Promise, if I'm honest! I was a bit sceptical when I first read that Marc was working with Chris Braide, whose CV includes songwriting for Marti Pellow, S Club 7, Emma Bunton, Victoria Beckham and John Barrowman. I was proved wrong.
DeleteFantastic Star is a great album. Not listened to that in ages.
ReplyDeleteI hate this new youtube thing of blocking playback on other websites. Selfish gits!
Oddly, whilst I bought all of the singles I didn't bother with the album at the time, getting a copy many years later. It's a tad overlong but much better than I possibly thought it would be at the time.
DeleteAnd yes, that YT thing is really annoying, as it only becomes obvious after I've published the post! Where possible, I try to use a fan page link which doesn't seem to suffer the same issue, but the only alternative for this song that I could find had even dodgier sound and video quality.
Happened to me for the first time earlier this week. Don't really understand it. Why would you not want your video to gets extra views?
DeleteI can only assume that YT dislike having embedded videos in other blogs and would prefer to force people to visit their own, where you're then subject to other recommendations, in-page advertising, revenue-generating content, etc. If I can avoid it, I will.
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