5 October 1989
Already in late 1989 we had harbingers of the decade to come. Here’s Wet Wet Wet as they begin to move away from the “popped in” of their debut album title and towards its “souled out”. In a few years time they will release a single that is truly an anal fistula on humanity; here’s a helpful preview.
By the “soul” reference above, I mean the unctuous, bowdlerised Simply Red-style “soul” (and I can’t emphasise those scare quotes enough) of saccharine lyrics, dumbed-down music and treacly production. Key AOR tropes like the big echoing snare, hotel lounge piano and slightly bluesy guitar lick are also trotted out here. Marti Pellow sings this under the misapprehension that we want to hear him doing his “soulful” loud bit not once but twice, or perhaps he does it just to please himself and to hell with what we want. In the video (below) he looks like Jim Carrey, perhaps as a smug Ace Ventura having found vital evidence by licking rhino dung. Listen to ‘Sweet Surrender’ and approximate that latter experience for yourself.
