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January 2025 • Volume 51 , Number 3 • www . illinoisentertainer . com
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COVER STORY : ALISON MOYET he may not have descended to the cynical , humanitydoubting depths of Moliere ’ s “ The Misanthrope .” But synth-pop diva turned Neo-soul stylist Alison Moyet could be getting awfully close .
The French-descended , English-bred artist first conquered worldwide charts via Yazoo ( or just Yaz Stateside ), her memorable duo with ex-Depeche Mode keyboardist Vince Clarke , and its definitive 1982 smash hit “ Only You ” — a bubbly anthem so definitive of the New Wave era that it ’ s still finding film and TV soundtrack usage , most recently in a childhood flashback scene in HBO ’ s fall miniseries “ The Penguin .” Then she stepped out on her own in 1984 with Alf , powered by no less than four hit singles — “ Invisible ,” “ Love Resurrection ,” “ All Cried Out ,” and “ For You Only ” — then followed it with nine successive solo sets , most recently “ Other ” in 2017 . And now , at a well-seasoned 63 , she ’ s celebrating four decades of said post-Yaz career with “ Key ,” a compilation of 16 deep-catalog cuts reimagined for her current electronica-sculpted concert schematic ( wherein “ Love Resurrection ” and “ All Cried Out ,” for instance , strip back to revival-meeting Gospel roots ), plus two new tracks — a synthesizer-thrumming “ The Impervious Me ” and the thoughtful processional “ Such Small Ale .” But in many ways , it ’ s still pre-cellphone , pre-internet 1984 for Moyet , who still isn ’ t sure that all of our ensuing technological , post- MTV advances are a good thing .
Moyet dropped out of high school at age 16 to join Clarke for two classy Yaz albums , Upstairs at Eric ’ s and You and Me Both . But she never fell into the technological slipstream and only recently learned how to operate home-studio computer program musts like Logic . “ I still recall every year as a kid , when we would go to France to see my relatives , and my dad sitting down with his big map and planning the route . But now you come across people who don ’ t even know how to read a map , and you think , ‘ Whoa ! What if it all goes down ? People are so fucked for some basic skills !’ Basic life skills , you know ?” And don ’ t even get her started on looming advances in Artificial Intelligence . “ Because that ’ s the really scary thing ,” she says . “ All of these AI photographs , where they can just mock up all of these complete untruths , just put people in … in … well , it ’ s just like ‘ Alice Through the Looking Glass ,’ isn ’ t it ?” IE ’ s Tom Lanham spoke to the amazing Moyet .
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