Hands down, one of my favourite acts of the 80s is Tears For Fears. Songs From The Big Chair is one of those albums I just always go back to. A lot of 80s music appeals specifically because of the age and period it exudes. In the case of Tears For Fears, and in particular Big Chair and The Seeds Of Love, the music doesn’t show its age in the same way as most of their contemporaries.
Take a listen to the big chords of The Working Hour, ticking back and forth like a clock before they are embellished by that luxurious saxophone. Or the sparse opening of Woman In Chains, a song that is both full of space and full of detail. These are songs that don’t feel old — instead they evoke a feeling of “they don’t make ‘em like this any more”. These are songs that feel expensive.
But it’s 2021 now. I haven’t featured LA duo Pr0files since their début album, Jurassic Technologie, came out in early 2016. The world has literally changed pretty much in those intervening years, but it feels a little like Lauren Pardini and Danny Sternbaum never went away.
Back with a cover of Tears For Fears’ career-defining Everybody Wants To Rule The World, Pr0files draw on the feelings of luxury that the song evokes. In contrast to the feeling of an ostentatious getaway retreat that the original conveys, the technical and mechanical feeling conveyed through the duo’s use of synths and drums gives this a more urbane aesthetic. It’s less “on a yacht” and more “at a beach bar”. Or at the very least, “on the underground, dreaming of being on a yacht”. But hey, it’s a pandemic — right now being on the underground seems less accessible than a yacht. So maybe the underground IS luxury.
Pr0files: welcome back, what took you so long?