Dead or Alive’s Youthquake review: A millennial listener offers his take on the ‘pop euphoria’ LP
Youthquake is "proof that music doesn’t need to be deep to evoke emotion," writes Joseph Ryan-Hicks.
After a lukewarm response to their debut album in 1984, Dead or Alive, fronted by the late Pete Burns, were in need of a fresh new sound for their sophomore effort. The band had undergone several musical facelifts before achieving moderate chart success in 1984.
But it wasn’t until lead singer Burns discovered the hi-NRG sounds of Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) and began working with the-then relatively unknown producers that the group would finally be propelled into the pop super league.
Youthquake saw Burns approach music from a lighter, more frivolous perspective than on the band’s debut. Adopting the house style of SAW and mixing the romanticism of Motown-inspired lyrics with Italo disco melodies, the group concocted an instantly recognisable
sound with Burns’ booming vocals at the centre.
“My daddy would go crazy/ If he knew what his baby/ Was spendin’ his life doing”
Album opener and lead single ‘You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)’ needs little introduction. The frantic dance-pop stomper is among the pantheon of iconic 80s records, reaching the top 10 globally and giving SAW, and Dead or Alive, their first UK no. 1 single.
Every few years, the track re-emerges as it is interpreted by newer artists — a testament to the original’s sheer brilliance. It would be the centrepiece of the album, providing the blueprint for the record’s remaining eight tunes. Of these, ‘I Wanna Be a Toy’ comes close to re-capturing the magic of the deliciously bonkers lead single (despite not being a single itself, bafflingly). “My daddy would go crazy/ If he knew what his baby/ Was spendin’ his life doin’”, proclaims Burns over a relentless spangly bassline and horror movie-esque violin stabs. It’s on tracks like this that Merseyside-born Burns’ outrageous personality is matched by the music.
“The high-energy sounds of SAW and Dead or Alive provide pure pop euphoria”
Married to a woman for nearly three decades, then to a man for the latter part of his life, Burns’ sexuality was always fluid (“I’m just Pete!” he once said on the topic of his sexual preference). On ‘Big Daddy of the Rhythm’, Burns flirts with his queerness: “Big, big daddy of the rhythm / I can feel you comin’… Big, big daddy of the rhythm / I’ll send this sloppy kiss to you”.
Performing in revealing outfits that make Gaga seem like a nun, Burns pushed the limits of what society accepted of men. His ever-evolving, surgically altered physical appearance often distracted critics from his brilliance. Although a stint on Celebrity Big Brother in 2006 revived his career, Burns is too often passed off as a relic of 00s reality TV. Youthquake, which reached the top 10 in the UK album chart and a respectable 31 in the US, is a testament to the impact he and his band had on pop music.
The album is proof that music doesn’t need to be deep to evoke emotion; instead, the high-energy sounds of SAW and Dead or Alive provide pure pop euphoria.