Scritti Politti - Boom! There She Was (1988) [Souped-Up Synthpop]
Green Gartside is pop music's unsung master of the craft, one whose influence is felt in a million tiny little ways even in 2020. A master of meticulous arrangement, he was someone on par with guys like Brian Wilson and Paddy McAloon in their respective primes. Going from being a bonafide Marxist living in squalor to a chart-topping pop wizard making millions in less than a decade on sheer drive, Scritti Politti's impact was such that even Miles Davis was obsessed with working with Green (and he got his wish eventually).
Unfortunately, while fame caused Green to implode and recede into complete obscurity for over a decade after this album, 1988's Provision is full of gems crafted under a fragmented sense of duress and disillusion. Green's musical OCD and lyrical + emotional bitterness is best illustrated on the opening banger featured tonight. The synth and drums programming and lofty arrangement would give even the obsessive Prince an aneurysm, but between all the sardonic observations and Zapp's Roger Troutman on talkbox duties...the result is exceedingly 1988 but somehow perfectly timeless.
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