Help! I’m trapped in a Pleasuredome!
On Frankie Goes To Hollywood, JADE
A few weeks ago, I was at my favorited used book/music store, Maryland’s Wonderbook. I spent about an hour there and was checking out with an old Rolling Stone, Mariah Carey’s “Emotions” and George Michael’s “Patience” when the cashier informed about their buy-two-get-one-free deal. Who am I to say no to a free CD? I looked around frantically. Frankly, there was nothing else I wanted. I’ve cleared the store of all of its Kylie Minogue CDs, and I already have three copies of “Ray of Light.” Then, as if placed by a higher power, I saw it: a white jewel case featuring an abstract painting of five hot young men. It was “Welcome to the Pleasuredome,” the debut album by England’s own Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I thought about their crossover hit, “Relax,” and how I kind of like it. I’d actually played it on my radio show few before, for a special episode featuring songs with counting in their lyrics. Anyway, I bought it.
It wasn’t until this week that I actually listened to it. It’s my goal to listen to 200 albums this year, and “Welcome to the Pleasuredome” was #3. I was sorely unimpressed. In 1985, Rolling Stones’ David Fricke described the album as
“the ultimate victory of mercenary style over substance, a work of extraordinary studio imagination and perverse commercial ambition dedicated to the elevation of hip agitprop and homoerotic self-absorption.”
40 years later, I’m inclined to agree. I think that the singles are great. I actually love the audacious “Relax” , and who can deny the sappiness of “The Power of Love”? They certainly took some big swings, as in the 13-minute title track, but much of the album feels like filler, which is crazy when you consider the fact that the album is 16 songs long. Quite novelly, the double record’s four sides were titled “Pray Frankie Pray,” “Say Frankie Say,” “Stay Frankie Stay” and “Play Frankie Play,” but these themes don’t necessarily seem to correlate with the music within. Three out of five songs in the “Stay” section are covers, the most bizarre of which being “Born to Run.” Frankie certainly understood the Zeitgest, though. The album was a commercial success, reaching a peak of #33 on the Billboard 200, and #1 in the UK.Perhaps it aged poorly, or perhaps I’m missing something that the Brits didn’t. Regardless, the CD is unlikely to be seen spinning in my apartment. I guess you get what you pay for.
In other British news, Little Mix’s JADE released her newest single this weekend. The song is called “IT girl” [sic] and is her fourth solo single. She had been teasing it within her music videos and social media platforms since she released her debut, the excellent “Angel Of My Dreams” last July. The new song is fine! The most interesting part of “Angel Of My Dreams” was the way it rapidly oscillated between introspective ballad and EDM club banger. The good news is that, following two very safe follow-ups, JADE did it again, kind of! On “IT girl,” she explores a persona that she briefly adopted in her debut song’s music video, and continues to rage against the pop music machine as personified by Simon Cowell. This time, however, she remains in club-mode for the far majority of the song, talk-singing over a house beat. “Kitty got fangs and kitty got claws,” she purrs. The song has a great catchy bass line, but doesn’t really go anywhere over its measly 2:34 runtime.
Therein lie my concerns with JADE’s current trajectory — I’m not too sure what she’s doing. She seems to be preparing to announce her debut album, but her discography so far is awfully disparate, and she only seemed prepared to push boundaries for her first song. She is certainly primed to become an “IT girl,” at least across the pond, but I’m worried she’s focused more on throwing out ideas than sticking to one. Maybe on “IT girl” she’s pushing against the expectations of greedy listeners like me. Regardless, I’m rooting for her.