Adele Bertei: When It’s Over – UK – 12″ [1985]

1. When It’s Over [Dance Mix] 5:42
2. When It’s Over [Metal Mix] 3:40
3. Every Little Bit Hurts 3:10

I will admit to being wrongly biased against Adele Bertei and it all came down to first hearing her [intentionally] strident performance on Thomas Dolby’s obnoxious single “Hyperactive” where she had the unenviable assignment to replicate Michael Jackson [for whom the song had originally been written]. It was such a gimmicky performance, and of a song that was all gimmick, that for decades [until I finally owned a copy of “The Flat Earth”] I actually thought was Dolby’s vocal, pitch shifted! It was many years later when I found that the voice had been hers.

Once I learned this, I looked into Adele Bertei and saw that, holy frijoles, in 1985 she had a single produced and written with David Gamson of Scritti Politti. With production by Gamson, Fred Maher, and John Potoker. With backing vocal, for good measure, by Green Gartside his good self. At the very least it could have been so Scritti Adjacent that it could sit on a shelf next to Chaka Kahn’s “Love of A Lifetime.” So five years ago it went on my Endless Want List®. Today we’ll discuss it.

The dance mix of “When It’s Over” began using every trick from the High 80s Scritti book. Linn Drums. Bass synth. Synth horn stabs. Pizzicato string samples. Maximum syncopation, and on the Dance Mix, almost excessively busy drum programming. The goods fit right in the ears like a hand into a glove, but the big revelation was the strong, but not strident, vocal from Ms. Bertei. It gave this the suggestion of an alternate universe Scritti Politti as fronted by a strong, female singer.

Then Green Gartside manifested on his backing vocal, which felt closer to a duet in how it had been structured. How had this bright, dazzling shoot of a record, grafted onto the vitality of the “Cupid + Psyche” rootstock, failed somehow to miss the British charts; besotted as they were by the rise of Scritti Politti? For that matter, we might ask how this record didn’t even merit a US release, seeing that “Perfect Way” had even enlivened the stodgy in comparison US Top 20 [barely missing Top 10 status] already?

The percussion movement and Fairlight breakdown in the Dance Mix was packed with the right stuff. The delayed sequencer/rhythm guitar battle in the climax was almost too exquisite. An almost hyper-refinement of the Scritti Ethos. That it failed to collapse under its own weight was thankfully down to the sturdiness of the song that Bertei and Gamson had written.

The so-called “Metal Mix” on the B-side brought to mind the similar mix naming gambit that Depeche Mode had done the next year with “Something To Do [Metal Mix.]” Wherein the MIDI programmed track had the synth voices for the data swapped with brittle, metallic samples. No! This was the furthest thing from it. This so-called “Metal Mix” was actually a more streamlined, smooth arrangement; lacking most of the percussive detail of the Dance Mix. More to the point, it sounded like something appropriate to the radio instead of club floor.

The naming convention of the mix finally revealed itself upon the guitar solo in the middle eight which was the point where the metal entered into it. As in “hair metal.” Making the single beholden to the Michael Jackson playbook of reuniting raunchy rock guitars with dance music as Quincy Jones sagely oversaw on “Beat It.” And wow, did it come close to the “Beat It” solo structure. Perhaps too close.

The final track was something completely different. A piano ballad cover of “Every Little Bit Hurts” from the pen of Ed Cobb of the Four Preps. Mr. Cobb is best known for penning “Tainted Love,” but this song has been covered by nearly everyone and their pet ferret!

• Friday’s Child
• Alicia Keys
• Bobby Rydell
• Chrissie Hynde
• Cilla Black
• Brenda Holloway
• The Spencer Davis Group
• The Clash
• Aretha Franklin
• and probably more…I’ve run out of time

And it’s the Aretha Franklin target that Ms. Bertei has hit on the bullseye here. It’s a fantastic B-side, 180 degrees away from the A-side, and proof that she only needs a piano to express herself. We can hear it courtesy of the artist’s Soundcloud.

I have to say that there was a huge difference between my negative first impression of Ms. Bertei and my reaction to this record. So much so, that I’m very open to hearing more from the artist and investigating further. A lot more. As we often discover at PPM, some time’s it’s better late than never.

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