Luxury Pop (explained)

Yes bruv!
I was p*ssed at a 30th birthday party the other night (friends of my older sister of course) and someone stupidly arxed me what kind of music I made as Rescue Cat. Without missing a beat, I replied 'Basically, it's called Luxury Pop'. Cue howls of derision and laughter from my friends. They obviously wanted me to explain such a statement and so I thought it best I try and do that via my blog...
Ok, so....

Luxury Pop in it's purest form is mid/late 80s pop/rock with a certain panoramic/widescreen feel to the production. It's also more cerebral in it's lyrical approach than other certain pop outfits of the time such as Wham! or Her Madjesty (obviously, Howard Jones' self help physco-babble might not strictly fit in with this).
For me, some of the bands that best sum up this genre (one that our keyboard player Bear made up a few weeks back) are as follows...

Scritti Politti




Howard Jones



Duran Duran of course. Although, they do also fit into a genre all of their own that I like to call 'Yacht Pop' which does crossover. Robert Palmer is often in this category too.

Nick Kershaw



Prefab Sprout



The wonderful Talk Talk

Swing Out Sister (extra points to them for having been part of Post-punk fucksters ACR

The Thompson Twins




And although they came out of the Synth Britannia school, the following bands definitely became luxury. I like to call them 'Proto Luxury'

Human League



Tears For Fears

Lennox and Stewart of course



A few people contested that the following bands were Luxury, and for one reason or another, they were wrong. I'll explain...

Although expansive and synthy, Depeche Mode had their roots in synth Brittania but were always a bit too S&M and gothy for Luxury.

New Order Because of where they started I have to turn them down. They are too Post-Punk/Synth Brittania I think. Perhaps Proto. I really don't know. The jury is out...

Bowie is a tricky one. He's much too much of a pop chameleon to be put into one category but for sure, Let's Dance was all about the luxury.

And as much as they fit into the category perfectly, I won't allow Go West to be involved because quite frankly they're rubbish really. Don't agree? Watch this..



I realised I've opened a MASSIVE can of worms here. I will of course welcome any debate on who should and shouldn't be allowed to be allowed in our Luxury Pop genre! Let me know if I've made any glaring omissions and I'll post them up on the next blog. Bear, Simply Red are not allowed for similar reasons to Go West. Also, the album Stars was 90s.

Speaking of Luxury Pop, Rescue Cat will be playing Mother Bar, 333 Old St next Wed the 2nd Dec. It's our last date before the New Year so come along and share a mince pie or two.

CAT FACT NUMBER 3:

Recent studies have shown that cats can see blue and green. There is disagreement as to whether they can see red.

That's good one huh?!

Later yeah?