Cupid & Psyche 85

This album was definitely unusual. It felt like an SNL comedy sketch at times and at others was charming. The lyrical compositions was pretty rudimentary and odd. It is hard to put my finger on exactly why it didn't work for me as an assemblage of traits? It just felt off-beat by one the whole time. Out of phase. So close to being something really special but because of that I actually found it pretty frustrating to listen to. I was glad that it was a fairly trim album in terms of length. I wish this was the album it could've been and I don't know what would fix it but I get a whiff of something real cool in the mix.

This was ok. Not bad, but not exciting. I’d be fine not listening to this again. 3/5

80s pop would've been my weakness a few years ago. Glad I can hear an album I've never heard of around that time with fresh eyes. After getting records that have expanded my musical knowledge, it's nice to have something more in familiar territory.

It sounds crafted and polished, which is a far cry from their post-punk background upon glimpsing the band's bio on Wikipedia. The singer has a breathy voice that pairs with the production, and sings a lot about love and girls as if those are the two things pop music is known for. The record definitely sticks to the 80s blueprint: lush ballads, funk tunes, and new wave SYNTH. Reminds me of Sabrina's most recent album (3.5).

I’m laughing because if someone were to ask, “What is 80s music?” I’d say this album. This is literally the sound of the 80s in a nutshell.

There are three distinct Scritti Politti periods...

Late 70's and Early 80's Post Punk living in a squat in Notting Hill.

Mid 80's Major label sophisto-pop stars.

2000's Dalston bedroom producer chamber pop superstars.

The post punk stuff is collected on a fantastic compilation called Early - you should check it out. The 2000's saw a brilliant album called White Bread Black Beer. Somehow they moved from hip west London in the seventies to hip east London in the 00's by touring the world.

The successful period, from which Cupid and Psyche comes from is their worst and the 80's production and electronic crashes from the drums don't help when the singer is as understated as Green. But look at what their contempories made around this time - the wretched George Michael solo albums, True by Spandau Ballet, 7 and the Ragged Tiger! This is clearly better.

I’m at a 2.

Look, I can see why people enjoyed this one. It’s got a fun enough soundscape to it, it’s got some good bouncy melodies, the lyricism is fine enough, and the vocals are so buried in the mix that they only feel like a guide to push towards enhancing the instrumental atmosphere. If you can turn your brain off enough to enjoy this, more power to you. I can’t turn my brain off enough, at least for this one.

It’s just so aggressively average compared to its contemporaries. My best compliment that I can give here is that, with the heavier use of synths / soundbank-heavy instruments, the production work here feels like a natural precursor to what Pharrell & The Neptunes would later integrate with actual instrumentation (or at least, far better MIDI soundscapes) by their production run in the early 2000s. Something like “A Little Knowledge” feels like a track The Neptunes could clean up and try to let Justin Timberlake salvage with a good featured partner to riff off of. A lot of these tracks share that sense of potential. There’s only two of them that really met it to my ears, being “Perfect Way” & “Lover to Fall”. 2 tracks out of 9, however, do not make an album. The other 7 tracks here are totally, utterly fine, so much so that I’m willing to say I’m closer to a 2.5 than a flat 2.

However, I’d still be going down regardless, as the flaws of this album just overwhelm most of the light positives that do exist. The production work here is fine enough as a loose hybrid of 80s synthpop & shades of the New Jack Swing era to come, but it’s so utterly drenched in big brass, gated drums & reverb that it makes the vocals nigh impossible to break through. When they do break through, Green Gartside’s vocals are somehow enunciating every word & stumbling through them at the same time, leading to a mismatched effect where I can’t understand a fucking word he’s saying unless I have the lyrics in front of me. Even then, I’m just not very moved by the lyricism, as I have no idea what the fuck most of these tracks are even trying to say at a deeper level. There’s concepts here, certainly, but nothing feels lived in or legitimate. Even with something like “Perfect Way”, you just can’t convince me he’s actually got the charisma to pull this girl & or any girl in the way that he’s bragging about. I can believe it when MJ is singing “Baby Be Mine” at the top of his lungs with passion. I can’t believe it when Green Gartside has “a perfect way to make a justification”.

Hence, a 2. More of a 2.5 bumped down to a 2, but still. It’s just an uninspiring 39 minutes that barely go anywhere as an album to my ears, and while I respect the opinions of reviewers at the time, I think the Spin review that says “no disco was ever this sublime” is one of the most batshit insane sentences I could possibly imagine in response to an album like this. Disco was already dead. You didn’t need to lift this up to piss on a grave buried 100 feet deep, and even then, if you were calling THIS better than Earth, Wind & Fire or Kool & The Gang, I might just straight up call you racist. It’s a 2. I don’t think it needed to be on the list.

This album consists of annoyingly synth-y, cheesy 80s pop. You could say it's high-energy and groovy, but it's a kind of music I dislike. Synths and bass have to be used a certain way for me to receptive to them, and this is just not it.

Očekivala sam nešto još gore. Ne razumijem kako je ovo na listi a Milli Vanilli nije, tu su negdje kvalitetom ali Milli Vanilli barem zvuči prijatno. Više ljudi ima Milli Vanilli kao guilty pleasure nego Scritti Politti garantujem. Rimuju se i jedni i drugi zato su mi naumpali. Loše je ovo bilo ali ne pregrozno sve u svemu.

I was honestly shocked with how good Cupid & Psyche 85 ended up being. I went into this album with zero expectations considering a good majority of the users on this site absolutely hate it (in fact, as of writing this, it is the 18th lowest rated album on this site) so i wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was. But as it turns out, this album consisted of some very good new wave music complete with cool synths, solid vocals and melodies that shouldn't work well but end up really working well. And there wasn't a single song that i really disliked. I know the reputation with bands like this being cheesy and being very much products of their time, but i found that if you come in with the right expectations, you can really enjoy this one.
Best Song: Small Talk
Worst Song: Lover To Fall

Fun listen from beginning to end. A lot of songs here can be replayed, 7/10.

Pre Listen:
Haven't heard of these guys before, but the band's name goes kind of hard. "Scritti Politti" just kind of roles off the tongue. I think they were ahead of their time with a name like that, especially the "Scritti" part. Inspiring.

Notable Tracks:
Small Talk - Favorite track on the album. It's fairly catchy, the bass is thumping, the electric guitar sounds great. I'd argue this song is where all musicians playing synergize the most, creating the best harmonies and melody.
A Little Knowledge - Least favorite song on the album by a wide margin. Almost skipped it. Why is he whispering in my ear, why is his voice poorly layered with a female singer, why are both of their voices vaguely distorted? This song is one pitch-shift down or slight distortion away from feeling demonic.
Perfect Way - I could've sworn I've heard this song before. Maybe it sounds really similar to Michael Jackson, or maybe it's the keyboard part that sounds like a Mario song, idk. Feels very familiar.

Post Listen:
Overall it was alright. The highlight through all the tracks was the electric bass for me, absolutely groovy. The synth work was fairly solid, but had some random shifts in quality, both good and bad. The sound effect additions in several songs were more distracting than complimentary. The lowest point was the vocalist, his breathy-singing and high-pitched voice just made him feel like a Michael Jackson cover singer to me.

This album overall feels like foundational 80's Girl Pop. Regrettably I'm not a girl, nor was I growing up in the 80's, so I don't think I was the target audience here. It's decent enough quality I can see some women in their 60's grooving to this in the modern day.

Scritti Musik, 3/5.

I don't think this is bad per say, but after listening to my fourth new wave / Brit pop album, it's starting to get stale; the instrumentals and production become predictable after a while. Maybe it's not fair to compare but it doesn't have that interesting variety and creative manipulation of sounds I look for in other pop genres (especially modern alt-pop).

Rhymes with shitty.

That's not my album. It's vibes are too soft.

I see why everyone clowns on this album. It's like white British Michael Jackson. I have to respect that this is only 38 minutes - if this was released today it would be 3.8 hours long!!!

The Good: There’s a Cupid involved!
The Bad: The arrows were left at home…
The Ugly: Shitti Pitti…

I recall having a “best of something” album, way back in the mid ‘80s which included a Scritti Politti song… but I can’t recall the damn song… and I don’t know if I want to.

Back in 1985 I was enjoying my teenage years, making out for hours with my girlfriend, and just generally sucking at school. I was listening to Prince, I was listening to Top 40 music. I don’t really recall this album on heavy play with my friends… or even play.
The radio played Madonna and Phil Collins, or Dire Straits.

Anyway, this is indeed ‘80s synth pop, and truth be told, if you’re gonna listen to that shit, then it might as well be this album.

I will give it 3* for the memories, however, off to cleans my pallet with some of the greater albums from 1985...

This album is straight candy. It sounds super dated, it's not as technically impressive as their notable contemporaries... and yet, I can't help but find it really charming. It's like some British City Pop.

Standouts: The Word Girl • Absolute • Don't Work That Hard • Lover To Fall • Wood Beez

A fine example of mid 80s pop with its synths and Fairlights but Green's voice is a little underwhelming.

Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. Got a bit samey but the same was a cool sound.

Me ha parecido una mala copia del sonido de los 80, es como un meme de la música, los intrumentos (falsos) y la forma de cantar de esa época. Lo malo es que es de esa época. Un dos por lo corto que es.