Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Longevity dictates either what you have done and continue to do resonates with a section of society that will love you no matter what, or that you maintain the ability to be chameleon like, that you can be all things to all people at some point or another. How you master such an issue of consequence is down to the ethic and strength you muster every day, how much the human spirit insists you create.
The truth is that everything does connect, and by recognising that truth the onlooker can openly embrace that it takes the two states of mind to coexist, it takes a bond and an attachment, but it also requires a belief that the ideas that propelled you into the hearts of many can be adapted to fit the circumstance of the now, that the songs for an artist are not just moulded for one generation or phase, but across time, across every heartbeat.
One of the true greats of the early synth era which ultimately altered the artistic outlook of Britain in the early 1980s, a connection to bands such as Human League and Heaven 17, and yet also one that has lived on, overcome adversity and personal hardship, and which in the last ten years has found an enormous strength and reflected in its following, Blancmange deserve their time over two distinct periods; they should be revelled and praised as the music persists in their collection of Everything Is Connected.
From Living On The Ceiling, God’s Kitchen, and one of the finest covers of all time in the reading of Abba’s 1982 track The Day Before You Came and to the superb re-emergence that came through introspective artistic songs such as I’m Having A Coffee, The Western, and the latest single Again, I Wait For The World, Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe’s ultimate visionhas transcended the momentum and pushed forth a future that was denied many outside of pioneers such as Depeche Mode, Gary Numan etc.
The double album is a reflection of a true heart, a passionate heart, a muscle bound by exploration and a message that is explosive and equal. This is the point of the connection between mind and love, nothing is ever truly lost because we have that union deeply rooted in us all, and it is to the group in whatever guise that they remain so popular, so honest, flowering with ideas forty years on.
A anthology that showcases joy and fertile understanding, Everything Is Connected in the end.
Blancmange release Everything Is Connected on May 10th via London Records.
Ian D. Hall