BLANCMANGE

EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED: THE BEST OF BLANCMANGE 1979-2024

Since Blancmange started up again in 2011, Neil Arthur has released seven regular albums, plus five in the instrumental Nil By Mouth series, demo collection Waiting Room, reworkings set Happy Families Too and three further LPs with side-projects Near Future and Fader.

It’s an incredible output for someone who only released one solo album after Blancmange split in 1986, but it’s also been hard to keep track. Handily, the first regular Blancmange compilation since 2012 does a great job of showcasing how Arthur (sadly without original bandmate Stephen Luscombe since 2012 because of ill health) has kept the quality up.

While that 2012 set The Very Best Of was more exhaustive in compiling the first Blancmange era, Everything Is Connected makes up for lacking I’ve Seen The Word and All Things Are Nice with its 45-year overview. (Shame about the negligible 10-track vinyl edition.)

Like an English Dieter Meier, Arthur’s distinctively quizzical Blackburn voice has sounded puzzled by both life’s inconveniences and what he’s doing singing pop music since the start. He can convey life’s big emotions – Blancmange’s cover of The Day Before You Came was way ahead of anyone else in hailing ABBA’s genius – but the disconnect between Arthur’s sternness and the giddiness of the music that he found himself embroiled in lit up Blancmange’s first three albums.

Advances in technology have only bolstered Arthur’s displacement in Blancmange 2.0. Clean Your House is a wonderful Xenomania-influenced fizzbomb, only improved by discussing the importance of domesticity.

The Fall justifies its eight-minute ode to Mark E Smith with its restless groove. Reduced Voltage is surely the greatest pop song about wanting a nap, offset by a squelchy Funkytown riff.

The 38-track compilation’s new song finally sees Arthur record a tune he penned in pre-Blancmange band L360, the frenetic Again, I Wait For The World seemingly lifted from an episode of Look Around You. Arthur can be forgiven for not writing anything completely fresh. There’ll probably be another new album ready by the time you finish reading this. JE