Revisiting the darkest ’80s with ACTORS
“Bury Me”/“Crosses” (Northern Light)
Fashion, apparently, goes in cycles. That hideous 20-year-old jacket at the back of your wardrobe? It’s cool again. Your dad’s old winklepickers? Yup—cool again. Dark, new-wave synth pop from the ’80s? You guessed it.
That has not been wasted on keyboard crushers ACTORS. Resurrecting the spacy synth sound that propelled the Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” to international fame, ACTORS’ new double-A-side, “Bury Me” and “Crosses”, would sit snugly on the Now That’s What I Call Music! 1983 compilation album.
Written, produced, and mixed by chief ACTOR Jason Corbett, “Bury Me” signals a departure from the veteran producer’s signature sound. Typically composing songs steeped in the postpunk and coldwave traditions, Corbett instead opts for a death-disco sound, driven by an energetic bass line. More Soulwax than Ian Curtis, Corbett has tinged the track’s persistent beat and reverbed vocals with a light distortion, preventing it from becoming too light and bouncy—because some parts of the ’80s are definitely best left in the past. We’re looking at you, Boney M.
“Crosses”, meanwhile, drops the tempo, trading the driving energy of “Bury Me” for droning bass notes and haunting guitar chords. With a falsetto vocal line that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Prince record, “Crosses” creates a rich, reverberating soundscape, punctuated by four descending synth notes. Granted, we can’t actually hear the lyrics, but we’re confident they’re suitably miserable. After all, we’re revisiting the ’80s—the decade of crack cocaine and Adderall.
Follow Kate Wilson on Twitter @KateWilsonSays
Comments