You and Me Both

by

Yazoo

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While not the ground breaking and influential work that Yazoo's Upstairs at Eric's was, You and Me Both nontheless contains as many hooks and bouncy tunes, combined with brooding, dark ballads, to make it an exceptional, and essential album. There are - thankfully, some might say - no experimental songs along the lines of "I Before E Except After C" ( from Upstairs...), just great pop songs. The opener "Nobody's Diary" is one of the finest songs vocalist Alison Moyet has ever written, as is the incredibly moving ballad "Ode to Boy". I noticed something in the sleeve notes of interest ( to me, at least ) - the songs are alternately written by Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet, with one, "State Farm", listed as co-written ( although I am inclined to believe Clarke simply wrote some lyrics and added a few extra synth lines, as State Farm is virtually the same song as

(Knocking for a)"Good Time" which appears on the other side of the album, and was written by Moyet alone.) And they are presented in a way that gives us one song by one writer, then the next by the other , and so on, all the way through. This, along with the brilliant cover art depicting two dalmation dogs looking ready to tear into each other, is somewhat telling of the conflict within the duo. Indeed, as they were recording this album, they had already decided to call it quits, and split very shortly after its release. Together for just 18 months as a duo, Yazoo managed to combine high art with pop splendor, chilly electronics with gospel/blues influenced vocals, garner rave reviews from critics, and sell boat loads of albums and singles ( in the UK at least - here in the US they remained a more underground sensation ). In retrospect, You and Me Both is a great "thank you and goodbye" from the best of the early-eighties synth-pop duos.