The members of Yazoo pose for a photo. Photo credits: Yazoo’s band profile image from Spotify

Hello all, and welcome to another installment of A Walk Down Memory Lane’s Bargain Bin! I’m your host, Larson, here to tell you about another band that you may or may not have heard of that is near and dear to my heart. This week, we’re stepping back from “Now, That’s What I Call Music!” to go back in time to about the beginning of the 1980s and talk about a band that I believe deserves much more recognition. That band, folks, is Yazoo! Yazoo (or Yaz, if you don’t know what a kilometer is), was a British pop duo between vocalist Allison Moyet and Vincent Clarke that only existed for about 18 months before splitting off. During those 18 months, however, they released two albums that would become extremely popular in both England and America during the 1980s. Both artists were involved in other projects before joining together as Yazoo, with Clarke having worked with famed British electronic band Depeche Mode on their album “Speak and Spell” and Moyet having sang for British punk band The Vandals (not the American one) for some time, as well as a number of other bands from the Essex area. After Yaz split over creative differences and clashes of personality, both members went on to be celebrated in their own careers: Clarke went on to found the band Erasure with Andy Bell (another one of my favorites!), and Moyet went on to sing by herself and tour as a solo artist.

So enough talking about the background, let’s get into the juicy details of it! Their first album, “Upstairs at Eric’s,” is an album that I hold extremely close to me. The album is a mix of radio ready synth pop hits, experimental takes on church sermons of all things, and soulful ballads backed by electronic melodies. The duo bring out each other’s strengths on this album, with Clarke playing melodies that support and cradle Moyet’s lower voice, and Moyet giving it everything she has (which is a lot!). I cannot rave enough about how much I love Allison Moyet’s vocals on this album. She can go from a synth pop hit like “Situation” to a downplayed ballad like “Winter Kills” to what I think is her best performance, “Midnight.” If there’s any song that you listen to off of this project, make it “Midnight.” Moyet’s singing and colorful delivery are supported by Clarke’s toned-down synth instrumentation. You really can feel the two of them clicking like puzzle pieces. 

However, not everything was okay behind the scenes. Clarke and Moyet started to disagree heavily on whether the group was meant to be, and it only worsened over the creation of their second album, “You and Me Both.” By the release of the album, the duo parted ways until 2011, when they did a short but highly successful reunion tour across the UK, North America and Europe. This album leans a little bit more into the bluesy elements of Moyet’s style, especially on the song “Good Times.” Clarke also messed around with different synthesized instruments on this project, such as trumpets, and sang one song on the album, “Happy People.” The album spawned the single “Nobody’s Diary,” which is a personal favorite song from them. I was able to find a 12 inch single of this song in Cairo of all places, and it’s one of my favorite records in my collection. The album was received positively, but after it was released, Yaz was done. 

When I was growing up, my dad tried to get me interested in the music that he really enjoyed. It worked… kinda. I loved some of the bands, and couldn’t stand other ones (sorry, The Cure, I adore you now!), and Yaz was one of the bands I adored. Funnily enough, I found their music through a compilation album released by Rhino Records of remixes of 1980s new wave songs. Future Retro was the name of the album, and I honestly recommend it if you enjoy new wave classics mixed with house beats! Anyway, I found Yaz through the remix of their song Situation that my dad gave me, and fell in love with Moyet’s lyrics. Being a young kid, my previous experiences with music were the Beatles, the pop songs I got from the library, and Christian rock (yeah, I admit it, I adored the song “Breakfast” by Newsboys, sue me!), so this was unlike anything I had ever heard before. These interlacing synth beats and a sultry powerful voice dancing on top of it was entrancing to me! It honestly still is, and it was also something that I got to talk about with my dad a lot, which was great! Both of my parents influenced my music choices greatly, and my dad was more of showing me all of these classic acts that I had never heard of in my life! So thanks, dad! This has been another entry into A Walk Down Memory Lane’s Bargain Bin!