I came across the reference to the production wizardry of a song "We Don't Talk Anymore" in Bob Stanley's introduction to James Fry's excellent "A Licence to Rock and Pop". The mysterious Alan Tarney was responsible. What's that then, I thought? I looked it up and discovered it was by the older Cliff Richard doing his version of ABBA.
Somewhere deep in my memory banks I remember this song from 1979 when I must have heard it when languishing (hiding depressed) in the sanatorium at my prep school. I remember Dr Feelgood's "Milk & Alcohol" from the same year.
The video is pure artistry. Cliff's stilted robotic dancing makes a virtue of awkward rigidity. I love the primitive video effects, but they were once no doubt cutting edge. Indeed, there's always something attractive about the way that very carefully-made futuristic music production ages. The attention to detail is still there, but the dazzling audio confection takes on patina from aging.
The track is, I feel, very moving emotionally. Cliff's seniority and his singular lack of cool invite tenderness. But perhaps that's just because I am in a particularly vulnerable position in my life right now, with everything built up collapsing around me? I love the way the melody modulates its key, with those deeply satisfying shifts across the register. Metronomy built a whole career on the back of this song. I've watched it over and over again this past week.