CHRIS & COSEY - SONGS OF LOVE & LUST @ 40

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this month is the album that turned a couple of "wreckers of civilization" into pop stars, as Chris & Cosey's Songs of Love & Lust hit the record shops in January of 1984.

As members of COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle, Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti had created reputations for themselves as controversial outsiders and provocateurs, pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable as both music and art. However, after the release of their confection of a single, October Love Song, late in 1983, they set their sights on creating a kind of music that was seemingly more conventional than anything they'd done previously. Their move in this direction began with their first two albums, Heartbeat, and to a lesser extent, Trance, which had a much more experimental vibe, but Songs of Love & Lust was purposefully and unapologetically striving towards accessible pop music, with intelligible, up front lyrics and melodic hooks that could linger in one's memory of the song, long after it was finished playing. For hardcore "industrial" music fans, this may have come as something of a disappointment, but for those willing to indulge the duo, their flirtations with mainstream song-craft opened up some wondrous possibilities.

This album was my introduction to Chris & Cosey, post TG. I'd only really dabbled in TG prior to this album's release, and didn't know of the existence of Psychic TV or Coil at all. As such, it functioned as a gateway drug into that world, offering infectious hooks and grooving rhythms I could relate to quite easily, where TG had seemed mostly impenetrable. That would all change soon enough, however, as the rest of 1984 would find me backtracking through Throbbing Gristle's catalogue, as well as Chris & Cosey's earlier releases, and eventually discovering PTV and Coil, until I was immersing myself in their entire oeuvre of sonic mayhem. But this was the album that truly piqued my curiosity and stuck with me, continuing to offer up its delights all these decades later. There are still songs on this album that I consider some of their all time best works.