Yaz - You and Me Both

Awesome Classic Yaz!

Love this album! I had it stolen a few years ago and its great to finally get it again. You can't go wrong with Yaz. Allison Moyet has an amazing voice! May 17, 2007

A certain person got my dander up

"Don't bother with this one"? Somebody needs to open his ears, because there's not much rational explanation for liking the first Yaz album but not liking this. Sure, it's darker by maybe 10 or 20 percent, but the melodies are as strong as ever, and Moyet's vocal turns can move and hurt and uplift here just as they did on the debut, if not more.

The opening and closing tracks alone make this one indispensable to any fan of eighties synth. Very few albums have stood the test of time this well. This is a classic. Get used to it. August 12, 2006

vince clark might be my dad...

as a thirty-someething dood, whenever i look back on my defining teenage years, i realize that vince clark perhaps had a bigger impact than anyone else. it started with erasure in about 87, and i quickly discovered both depeche mode and yazoo -- it's not YAZ, either, people. YazOO. :) from age 14-18, i pretty much listened to all three bands non-stop. and now everytime i listen to a vince clarke incarnation, i can't help but look back fondly.

yazoo's second album, while not hugely different from 'upstairs at eric's' does represent a band's evolution. for one, alison moyet's presence is much more apparent. the album opener, 'nobody's diary,' might be the album standout--and that's no small compliment given vince's insanse proficiency at birthing high-quality tunes. secondly, the production on 'you and me both,' is much sparser, as is the instrumentation. much of vince's keyboard work feels restained and choppy, almost minimalistic. nothing on 'you and me both' is on par with synth classics like 'only you,' 'situation,' and 'the other side of love' (available only the import version of 'upstair's at eric's), but 'you and me both' is much more intimate album. it's almost as though vince and alison invited you over to tea. thirdly, it's a lot more experimental than 'upstairs.' songs like 'good times' and 'sweet thing' don't sound like anything off 'upstairs.' listen to 'sweet thing' and it's not hard to imagine prince singing it. fortunately, we don't have to because alison moyet was and is a first-rate vocalist. i wish more people were familiar with her work because you'd be hard-pressed to find a purer, more expressive voice. it's a compliment to her that blessed with those pipes she resists the tendency great vocalists have to over-sing and over utilize the vibrato (anyone who's watched 'american idol' lately knows what i'm talking about).

vince, for his part, experiments with sounds like he never had before upto that point. it's really quite something to hear him layer tiny synths bleeps and blips over faux-strings. and to think he was probaly 23 or 24 at the time is nothing short of amazing. when you take a look back at the vince clark canon, it's pretty remarkable. i doubt anyone has ever had more UK top 40 singles.

the real gem, however, of 'you and me both' is 'state farm.' i couldn't really get into it the first time i heard it. as i got little older, though, the song's brilliance really came shining throught. it's a funk-inspired stomper accented by alf's clever word play and spot-on delivery. and it's always fun to sing 'who buys the tickets and who buys the clothes, puts the liquor in his stomach and the powder up his nose.'

i always wonder what a third yazoo album might've sounded like. i like to imagine that they would continue to grow darker, more experimental, and more seductive. unfortunately we'll never know. fortunately, however, we'll always two stellar albums by one of the most underrated duos in history.

June 1, 2006

good old 80's

Remember the good days of music. Kids these days are getting into the 80's. You can see why when you listen too this. Im glad vince clark split up to create erasure. However I wish he would of made more yazoo music. November 5, 2005

Can't get it out of my mind

These comments apply to "Upstairs at Eric's" and "You and Me Both" by Yaz:

Turned on to these albums in high school in a very interesting way (long story ... :->), I have not been able to get these albums out of my head. (The fact that later I was able to connect with one of my supervisors over these very albums is another very interesting story ....)

I bought the cassettes when they first came out, then later the CDs, and somewhere along the line lost the CDs and bought them again recently.

These albums are most excellent, with a classic late 1980s/ early 1990s feel with a slightly different twist. I like the beat that is indicative of the time, but the lyrics, the language, has a meat, a bite, with much more depth than a lot of the music of that same time.

To me, a music library is just not complete without these two albums, and now that I've verified my previously purchased CDs are not merely misplaced in a move but truly lost, I feel much more complete now that I've repurchased these albums and have them in my musical collection.

I could discuss each track in laborious detail - but suffice it to say, if you're even remotely a fan of late 1980's/early 1990's music, you'll love Yaz.
October 2, 2005

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