Scritti Politti
Cupid & Psyche '85
-- Vinyl, 1985
Words: Joost Niemoller. Translation from Dutch: Ellen Pronk.
How on earth can a Marxist-schooled intellectual with an obsession for
languistic philosophy make an album with the 'horniness' [geilheid....] of
Smokey Robinson and the divine perfection of Kraftwerk? Cupid & Psyche
'85 is made for me. An album I play and play and play and which becomes more
astonishing each time. A masterpiece. Music is a medicine!
Each song of Scritti Politti sounds at first like a passionate love song, but
as sharp as a razor. On further listening that's what they are, among other
things. Small Talk for instance. A love song about the (in)consequence of
verbal interaction. Pardon me? We are talking about pop music, right? Why so
difficult?
Scritti's worlds is difficult. It's a world for troubled minds. But that can
be stylish, like--but how different from--the simplicity of Leonard Cohen which
comes from a mind too quick, as is the case with Scritti. The simple cases are
the most difficult ones. In every way Cupid & Psyche took a lot of
time to make. If you want to give something the stylish 'obviousness' [vanzelfsprekendheid],
you don't do that just like that. You gotta read Wittgenstein, or else you got
no universe to start with. To put something down with one, effortless stroke,
you got to practice and start over again and again. What am I thinking? Nobody
will understand me... Do I understand myself? I mean, do I understand why I
think Cupid & Psyche '85 is so extremely beautiful? Not by any means.
I have to listen to this for a very long time. This album sounds so right. I
don't feel like adding anything to it.
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