FEATURE:
Second Spin
Deacon Blue – When the World Knows Your Name
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THIS feature throws a spotlight…
IN THIS PHOTO: Deacon Blue in a publicity shot for Real Gone Kid in 1988
on albums that I feel were overlooked or underrated when they first came out. I am a big fan of Deacon Blue and have been intoxicated by their music since the 1980s. I remember when their debut album, Raintown, arrived 1988. I was very young when that album came out, but it sold a huge amount and spawned classics like Loaded, Chocolate Girl and Dignity. It was a hard task following such a successful and lauded album. In the case of the Scottish band, they put out When the World Knows Your Name the following year. The album remains their only number-one, and it knocked Madonna’s Like a Prayer off at the top spot. 1989 was a phenomenal year for music, and this incredible album arrived from Deacon Blue in April. Whilst I think Raintown is a more consistent and often deeper album than When the World Knows Your Name, I think Deacon Blue’s second album contains some of their best work. There is tongue firmly in cheek regarding the album’s title: the band’s name was widely known, and they transcended from this fairly unknown band to one that was known across the world. Maybe there are a couple of filler tracks on When the World Knows Your Name, but there is so much to enjoy that was not necessarily appreciated back in 1989. In their Deacon Blue feature of last year, Classic Pop gave an assessment of When the World Knows Your Name:
“Brilliantly crafted, with an eye firmly on the prize of commercial triumph, it includes no fewer than five hit singles, among them their first Top 10 hit, Real Gone Kid, as well as Wages Day and Fergus Sings The Blues.
Ross remains the fulcrum, but McIntosh is integral to When The World Knows Your Name, impelling Deacon Blue into the big time.
As Mat Snow succinctly summed it up in his Q magazine review, she “adroitly feminises the band’s texture and so saves us on more than one occasion from being flattened by an excess of overwrought macho breast-beating”.
I think there was a lot of variety in the charts in 1989, and Deacon Blue’s brand of well-crafted and thought-provoking Pop – not always but in most cases – was certainly more compelling and interesting than a lot of music from that year. It is a shame that many critics either focused too much on the hits or were a bit stuffy regarding Deacon Blue’s style and lyrical content. With their lead, Ricky Ross, penning most of the tracks – some were with keyboardist James Prime -, I think there is a unity and cohesiveness that holds the album together. With Lorraine McIntosh – she and Ross have been married for thirty years – providing stunning vocals and accompaniment to Ross, When the World Knows Your Name is a hugely pleasurable ride from the start to finish. I think When the World Knows Your Name is well-balanced in terms of the biggest moments. Queen of the New Year, Wages Day, Real Gone Kid and Love and Regret are the first four tracks, and When the World Knows Your Name gets off to a flyer! Fergus Sings the Blues is in the middle of the album, and Your Constant Heart and Orphans end proceedings.
Any album that has one massive hit on it should be celebrated; When the World Knows Your Name has at least four of them! Real Gone Kid is Deacon Blue’s signature song and it is one of my favourite tracks. I recall hearing that track not long after it came out and I was hooked by its energy and vivacious chorus! It is a magnificent song and it is one of those go-to tracks for when you need a boost! The band are terrific throughout, and the range of songs on When the World Knows Your Name keeps the album flowing and constantly interesting. I do like how the vocals of Ricky Ross and Lorraine McIntosh blend; the blend of sounds across When the World Knows Your Name that balances the masculine and feminine. I want to bring in a review from AllMusic that follows the same sort of lines as other reviews in terms of balancing compliments with constructive criticism:
“Their name may come from a Steely Dan song, but, as far as their musical makeup goes, Deacon Blue owes a lot more to Simple Minds and Prefab Sprout than the Dan. On When the World Knows Your Name, the band blends AOR, Celtic flourishes, and dashes of blue-eyed soul to create a polished album that, while it won't make any "best-of" lists in a hurry, has more than a few pleasures to offer nevertheless. Deacon Blue isn't on the mark all the time. They have their failings, notably a tendency to get overly precious and self-indulgent when trying too hard to be impressionistic on the slower songs toward album's end.
But when they get it right, like on "Queen of the New Year," "Wages Day," "Real Gone Kid," and "Fergus Sings the Blues," their driving melodies and hooks are fine compensation. Ricky Ross' songwriting is accomplished enough when he's not striving too hard for poetic effect: his word-picture evocations of light and shade are particularly impressive. The material is mostly strong, if not uniformly so; the playing is rather more consistently focused and energetic. If Deacon Blue gets the balance right, and plays to their strengths, they could be rather more than the minor-league U2 they come off as on this album”.
Over thirty years since its release, I feel When the World Knows Your Name sounds fresh and stands up. It is an album where some of the lesser-known cuts - This Changing Light and One Hundred Things – warrant attention, as they are songs that might have been overlooked in favour of the hits back in 1989. If you need a bit of a lift at this hard time, listen to Deacon Blue and an album like When the World Knows Your Name. I have always been very fond of the album, and I have never understood why so many have been a bit ambivalent towards it. When the World Knows Your Name is a varied, often scintillating record packed with wonderful choruses, brilliant lyrics and stunning musicianship from the whole band – and the always-wonderful vocals from Lorraine McIntosh. Diving back into Deacon Blue’s When the World Knows Your Name has been…
A real joy.