Rocktrospectiva: The Underreated "Believe You Me" Turns 40

Released on 11 October 1985 "Believe You Me" was the third studio album by the English synth-pop duo Blancmange. The album spawned two singles "What's Your Problem" & "Lose Your Love". 

 

The album was suppoused to be their most ambitious work ever made, recorded in seven different studios with four producers and zillions of guest musicians. Unfortunately, the results were inconsistent as they might have been but taking a look after all these time, the album  was quite agreeable. The songs aren’t consistently wonderful, but simplicity and understatement make inquisitive on tracks like "Don't You Love It All", "What’s Your Problem?" and "Why Don’t They Leave Things Alone?" were nice and pleasant.

Released in the wake of the success of the second Blancmange album "Mange Tout" things were seemingly on the up for Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe at the time. Unfortunately, the disloyal record buying public had other ideas and hit hard on "Believe You Me" the album peaked at number 54 in the album chart and whilst it spurned three singles only one of those, What’s Your Problem scraped its way into the Top 40 despite "Lose Your Love" was a real banger.

Despite the album was filled with absolute gems and remains a truly underrated album to this day. The producer Stewart Levine (BB King, Boy George, Killing Joke, Lamont Dozier) it raised the bar in terms of sparkling production and should have seen the band catapulted into the next level of success. Maybe it was angled at the American market with shiny guitars and a rockier edge and the British public weren't ready for that change, definitely that thing will just remain one of those incredibly inexplicable mysteries in the music industry of the 80s.

Talking about the singles "Lose Your Love" was a truly immediate singalong track with a wall of sound and a toe-tapping chorus, "What's Your Problem" was another typically Blancmange track with a chorus that really didn't kick in until the latter half of the track, it is clear that it is an album of promise and hope. Why it didn’t take off is a mystery as it combined the best elements of the band's first two albums but with an advanced production. 

"Paradise Is" was another nice track that could quite easily have nestled in amongst the remainder of Happy Families and Don’t You Love It All. Although the album curiously ended with two instrumentals, the high-powered "Other Animals" with vocals from the London Community Gospel Choir, and "Why Don't They Leave Things Alone?," a medium paced tune about the state of the World. The song became arguably the bands finest single.

Critics wasn't good at the time, they described the album as something that Blancmange have come back with a selection of songs so varied yet simple that they make the whole thing seem practically effortless. Still there are the infernally catchy synthesized dance tracks and ballads but they've also introduced a lot more string arrangements. Other said that the synth duo gets some help from friends, but their relaxed sound proves a little too relaxed to encourage listener involvement, despite some fine playing, in the years to come, the critics have improved compared the album as their best work defined it as a mature techno-pop, filled with absolute gems and remains truly underrated to this day.

 

Believe You Me Track List:

 

1. Lose Your Love

2. What's Your Paradise

3. Paradise Is

4. Why Don't They Leave Things Alone?

5. 22339

6. Don't You Love It All

7. Believe

8. Lorraine's My Nurse

9. Other Animals

10. No Wonder They Never Made It Back

11. John