Over the decades, Scottish musicians have made many classic, cult or under-appreciated albums that have stood the test of time. Today, we look back at Sulk, by the Associates. ON the printed page the opening lyrics might not be the most immediately arresting ones you've ever read – “I’’ll have a shower/ and then phone my brother up/ Within the hour/ I’ll smash another cup” – but they in fact usher in one of the greatest singles of the Eighties.
Party Fears Two, with its irresistibly catchy keyboard motif, was taken from The Associates’ second studio album, Sulk, which was released in May 1982. Sulk reached number ten in the UK, while Party Fears Two got as far as number nine. Both made a significant impact.
Bjork, for example, loved Sulk, and Melody Maker made it its album of the year. Billy MacKenzie, the Associates’ charismatic singer and lyricist, said his vision for Sulk was “ABBA meets Bet Lynch on acid”. As for Party Fears Two, the radio and TV presenter Vic Galloway, writing in 2018, described it as “staggering”, a song “that sounds just as luscious and outlandish as the day it was released”.
“The first time I heard the Associates was when I saw ‘Party Fears Two’ on Top Of The Pops”, wrote the music journalist, Simon Reynolds, in a Melody Maker article in 1990. “It was one of those moments – the first snarl of ‘Anarchy in the UK’, the first spin and reel of ‘This Charming Man’, the first giddy sip of Prince – when the.
