Melt with Them Over and Over Again (part 1)

The Wave Splashes Eternal, part 17

(On Modern English & Its Music)

by aLfie vera mella

This English band may be regarded paradoxically as popular and obscure at the same time—popular because their 1982 single “I Melt with You” continues to be a favorite radio staple and to be used as a TV advertisement jingle; obscure, for many people recognize the song but not the band and usually dismiss them as a “one-hit wonder” despite their seven-album discography that spawned several radio singles

Personal Discovery

I discovered Modern English in the summer of 1983. I was on a vacation at the house of my Aranzamendez uncles and aunties in Better Living Subdivision in Bicutan, Parañaque, Philippines, whose friends were into Punk Rock and New Wave. I was only 12 years old! It was the era when youngsters organized house parties powered by mobile music because they were still too young to go to clubs. It was also the time when movies could be watched at home by way of Betamax films. There were no DVDs, VCDs, nor even VHS tapes yet. One day, my Uncle Edmon’s friend Rey Aguila came over with a new Betamax tape in hand. It was the 1983 film Valley Girl, starring Nicolas Cage (as a romantic New Waver who lived downtown) and Deborah Foreman (as a happy-go-lucky girl who lived in the valley). Importantly, the movie featured as the main theme song a track called “I Melt with You,” by a band known as Modern English.

The Origin

Formed in Essex, England, in 1979, Modern English may have eventually become more known especially in the 1980s as a Pop-leaning New Wave group alongside the likes of A Flock of Seagulls, ABC, Duran Duran, and Kajagoogoo; but it actually started as a Gothic-sounding band in the league of Joy Division and Bauhaus.

Discography Review

Mesh and Lace (1981)

“You didn’t know how much I wanted you

You didn’t know how much I needed you

Shadows on the wall, staring from the bags

Pent-up frustration, failed to explode”

1. Sixteen Days

2. Just a Thought

3. Move in Light

4. Grief

5. The Token Man

6. A Viable Commercial

7. Black Houses

8. A Dance of Devotion (A Love Song)

After Valley Girl, I craved for more of Modern English. Beginning in 1985, I finally acquired cassette-tape copies of the band’s albums. The first of these was Mesh and Lace, originally released in 1981 on 4AD Records. It introduced me to the Postpunk/Gothic sound of Modern English—dark lyrics and haunting vocals on a backdrop of low-register bass, tribal beats, angular guitars, and synthesizer drone.

My number-one favorite off Modern English's first album: "A Dance of Devotion (A Love Song)" 

Tracks that best represent the description are “Just a Thought”; “Move in Light”; “A Viable Commercial”; “Black Houses”; and “A Dance of Devotion (A Love Song),” a regular staple on WXB 102 during this Philippine FM radio station’s heyday in 1986. 

Paradoxically, the sonic mood of "Move in Light" is dark. 

The title of the track "Move in Light" is a reverse of the song’s mood—dark, aggressive, cunning, calculating, unyielding, and relentless until the end. “Black Houses,” on the other hand, exemplifies Modern English’s beginnings as a Gothic-driven band in the veins of fellow English bands Bauhaus and Joy Division.

"Black Houses" best exemplifies Modern English's Gothic beginnings

(review of the rest of the albums, to be continued...)