Back when we were living overseas, my sister used to introduce my brother and I to all kinds of music. One such artist was M, with his only hit, 1979's Pop Muzik. As it was typical for those days, she played it for us on her series of records from Springbok Hit Parade. Volume 45 to be exact.
This was back in the days when we had no clue that those singing on the albums usually weren't the original artists. However, the tune was good enough that it got and held our young attentions.
M fell off my radar for the longest time, but when I did think back to his one hit wonder, I often considered it a song from the 80's. Ultimately, I would learn that this was incorrect on my part.
Now before I go any further, I should establish here that M is not the name of any one particular artist, but rather the group created by singer Robin Scott, who created the pseudonym as a "project" in 1978. However, prior to this, he had a humble beginning as a college student, who showed a talent for writing and performing topical songs. This led to the release of a solo album, Woman From The Warm Glass in 1969.
Though this didn't garner much attention, it did lead to Scott performing folk songs at various clubs throughout the early 70's, sharing the billing with the likes of an up and coming David Bowie. As his popularity grew, he was given the opportunity to create the multimedia project, The Voice, for the BBC, and from there set off to travel Europe and North America.
Upon returning to England, he began work on a series of demos with other artists, found himself the winner of a Star national talent show. The latter led to an offer of a recording contract, which he ultimately turned down because it did not include his backing band.
Between 1973 and 1978, he continued to work with other up and coming artists, and co-founded the record label, Do It Records, which he released the Roogalator's debut album, Play It By Ear through. However, the label's most noteworthy talent would be Adam And The Ants, who they released the first recordings for in 1979.
Scott would eventually relocate to France around 1979, and it was here that he created M, utilizing session musicians for the group. It was with them that he created and recorded the number one hit, Pop Muzik for the 1979 debut album, New York, London, Paris, Munich. Though it would become their only US chart topper, there were several other songs which charted in the UK. Despite this, M's follow up albums, The Official Secrets Act (1980), Famous Last Words (1981), and Jive Shikisha (1984 recorded, but released in 1998) would all be failures.
Today, I'm going back to my childhood, to relive those times where we sat in a circle around my sister's record player to finally listen to the full debut album of M. The aforementioned 1979, New York, London, Paris, Munich.
Sadly, I can sum this one up relatively quickly. It was difficult to get through. Normally, when I create these posts for my Retro Spins reviews, I type as I listen. I couldn't do this with this particular album. The reason being was that the tracks were very distracting. Almost to the point of annoying. What made this disappointing for me was that the songs themselves weren't actually bad. But, something about them left me unable to focus, and even now, I'm not sure what that was.
With exception of Pop Muzik, which still stands the test of time as a great tune, nothing else was all that memorable. I can't really say much more than that.
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