Associates - Party Fears Two
Not a title that makes much sense, until you opt for the less common meaning of party, where the party in question is Billy MacKenzie, the lead singer with the extraordinary vocals, and friend of Morrissey (it was rumoured that Morrissey’s lyric for “William it was Really Nothing” was about MacKenzie).
A retrospective 80s favourite, this. Although I couldn’t quite place it, as soon as I heard The Divine Comedy’s version on their 2006 album “Victory for the Comic Muse” I knew that I had heard it somewhere before, in a far off life. The earworm keyboard riff, reworked for strings, can’t quite compensate for the unfortunate truth that, as wonderful a vocalist as Neil Hannon undeniably is, even he can’t match Mackenzie’s vocal dervish. Not that Billy would agree with this, having described his own performance on Party Fears Two as “hysterical Banshee screeching”.