Altered Images – Pinky Blue

Next up from Altered Images is “Pinky Blue.” This was their second album, and the second one of theirs I bought, but I didn’t get it in 1982 when it came out; my Altered Images phase came two years later. It now appears that critics at the time, comparing this to “Happy Birthday,” found “Pinky Blue” to be overly commercial — by which they must have meant, listenable. “Pinky Blue” is a sweet, quirky little tune that makes the most of Clare Grogan’s distinctive voice, and “I Could Be Happy” is close to pop.

I mean, I still like listening to the song “Pinky Blue,” but to this day I have no idea what the lyrics are about, if anything:

pinky blue skies away
chasing my dust today
easy to doubt but say
easy to slide away
pinky blue skies away
pinky blue skies away
easy to, easy to
what to do? what to do?
where are you?
you know it’s up to fate

“I Could Be Happy” is sweet and was a top 10 hit in the UK. It also isn’t full of meaning:

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Their cover of Neil Diamond’s “Song Sung Blue” had to have driven the critics crazy, because in 1982 there could be no singer more square than Neil Diamond, and almost no Neil Diamond song more square than “Song Sung Blue.” I was right there with the critics, but she gives it an unaffected, childlike quality that somehow makes it un-cloying.

Some of the other songs on the album are still quite enjoyable too – heading in the direction of the previously discussed “Bite,” but still a little more discordant.

Because it was the ’80s, of course I had 12″ singles as well as the album.

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