When In Rome “The Promise”
Depeche Mode “Enjoy The Silence (Single Mix)”
Thompson Twins “Hold Me Now”

In honor of the fixing of my broken synth, today we have three of my favorite synthpop tunes. Pardon me if the choices are a tad bit lazy, but this is a celebration.

There’s surprisingly little information out there about When In Rome. It seems that they were sent to give us one nigh-perfect pop song then disappear. Say what you will, but that’s a noble goddamn calling.

I remember wandering the streets of San Francisco with friends, full of mushroom pizza and microbrew, and passing a park where “The Promise” was playing on a boombox. The hook was stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Its verse is melodically sedate, in huge contrast to the more dynamic chorus–sort of the presage to the soft-loud dynamic that got us through the early 90s. Somehow they managed to combine yearning and uplift, joy in abandonment and submission, a moment so powerful you grasp for words.

Sometimes I just feel fey and dramatic. OK?

I’m sorry to say that my interest in Depeche Mode is only the most superficial. Or maybe the song choice gave me away–I’m one of those people who really likes “Enjoy The Silence.” But I really, really like it.

I guess I dig the irony of someone going on at lenth about how “words are very/ unnecessary.” Or I get swept up in the romance of someone swearing, “all I ever needed/is here in my arms.” Of course, things can’t be that perfect if the speaker’s so busy obsessing about broken vows and empty words…

I was mulling over which version of this song to post and realized that the Cure-ish guitar part that links the chorus back to the verse is a key part of the song’s catchiness. There’s a solo harmonium version around that’s kinda morose and gothier, but doesn’t have that.

Bad cover idea no. 12,324: I always thought someone shoulda done a really doomy grunge cover of this song, with a crazy loud distorted-guitar chorus. This reveals my unsteady, and sometimes quite underdeveloped relationship with irony, I’ll admit. The band Failure came close, but, well, you know…

(Incidentally, the little lady tells me that D.M. on the Faith & Devotion tour was her first concert. I think mine was Stone Temple Pilots at the New Haven Civic Center, with Jawbox and the Meat Puppets opening, for what it’s worth.)

My affection for the Thompson Twins‘ tune “Hold Me Now” dates back to grade school. I have distinct memories of a cassette comp with a bright green cover featuring this song and Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me,” although I can’t remember what else was on it.

Twenty-odd years later, I’m still not sick of the song. In particular, the desperation in the lead dude’s voice when he gets to the final verse, “so I sing you a new song/please don’t cry anymore,” accented by some moody piano, then switching to a sort of deadpan bitterness, “and I’ll ask your forgiveness/though I don’t know just what I’m asking it for”… it hits me just like it did when I was too young to know better.

And let’s face facts, it takes balls just to attempt the ultrafalsetto counterpoint vox during the coda. Even though it doesn’t sound like it.

I feel like there’s a tinge of reggae to “Hold Me Now,” although I don’t know if I’m hearing the accents of the synth bass, noticing the percussion that puncuates every other bar in the verse or remembering a natty dread in the group along with the drugged-out-looking pale couple.

/Checks google.

OK, they were more like braids than dreads. And in my memory, the pasty dude looks more like a member of JAMC than like Corey Hart. I prefer the memory.

I had a bad cover idea for this song too: acoustic emo with serious yowling on the chorus. If someone pulls this off, I want points.

In closing, you must respect a band whose haircuts double as a logo. Witness:

When in Rome at Target.
D.M.’s Violator at Newbury Comics.
TT’s Greatest Hits at Newbury Comics.