Retro Spins: 'Til Tuesday - Voices Carry

I guess 'Til Tuesday is considered a one-hit wonder band for their song, Voices Carry. However, after hearing their 1985 album of the same name, I'm a little shocked by this. It's pretty solid.

Led by bassist, lead vocalist and songwriter, Aimee Mann, 'Til Tuesday hit the Boston scene in 1982, finding hometown success with their song Love In A Vacuum. This eventually gave way to the band scoring a record deal with Epic Records.

With the aid of their single, Voices Carry, and the help of steady rotation in MTV's videos, 'Til Tuesday's debut album became certified gold, selling over 500,000 copies in the USA alone. The song would debut on the charts at number eighty-three in April of 1985 and continue to climb up to the number eight spot by July, beating out the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams and Tears For Fears. For those of you who weren't there, it's probably difficult for you to understand the achievement this was. 1985 was a solid year for 80's hits, and while it's no small achievement to have a top ten hit, to do so in this particular year was a big deal.

Looking Over My Shoulder debuted on the charts in August at number seventy-eight, but disappeared the following week. It's because of this that the band remains known as a one-hit wonder. As I said above, this is a little surprising to me, because of how good the album is.

Now with that said, you're not going to find "massive" hits here, and I think that may have been the problem with this albums overall success. While the remaining tracks are good, Voices Carry is really the only one with that "commercial" sound to it. The rest just aren't very airplay friendly. They're not catchy or peppy, so to speak. They feel a bit deeper and more complex - Something that definitely wasn't going to be on the radio in 1985.

While I won't profess that anything on the album was better than their single, I will say that overall, I'm interested in hearing their two follow up albums. Though that won't be today, or probably even tomorrow or next week. However, until then, hush hush. Keep it down now. Voices carry.

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