Scritti Politti “Cupid & Psyche 85″ 1985. This is probably the first time I have listened to the entire album (I was super-into the hit “Perfect Way” back in the summer of ‘85 but don’t think bothered to listen to any other songs). It’s rather sickly-sweet snyth-pop fronted by British falsetto blue-eyed soul so I was a bit shocked to read that the origins of Scritti Politti were influenced by founder/main member/vocalist Green Gartside’s attendance of the infamous Sex Pistols concert in December ‘76 in Leeds (the first show of their Anarchy in the UK Tour), that the band name was an homage to an Italian Marxist writer and that they toured with Gang of Four. Cupid & Psyche 85 gives absolutely no indication of this: it’s “smooth, non-alternative, chainstore pop” with an 80′s post-disco high polish. The track “Small Talk” was produced by Nile Rodgers! Three other tracks (“Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin),” “Absolute” and “Hypnotize”) were produced by Arif Mardin whose other work included collaborations with the Bee Gees, Chaka Khan and Phil Collins, hardly lefty anarchist punks. Anyway, the poppy boppy sound worked for Scritti Politti and Cupid & Psyche 85 reached #5 in the UK with three top 20 hits, plus “Perfect Way” which hit #11 in the US and stayed on the charts for 25 weeks. I’m not sure I’ll be listening to the full album again anytime soon, though I am kinda enjoying “Perfect Way” for nostalgia.