Tanita Tikaram

After 20 years, I finally bought her first album on CD this week, one that had been seminal in my own music making since my teens, and has never gone away. Listening to it for the first time in stereo, it has struck me once again what a brilliant piece of work Ancient Heart is. Made when Tanita was only 18, it is lyrically and musically very mature – and remains inspiring to me.

In 1988, I handled my teenage angst with largely two albums, on cassette, played over and over. They were both new at the time and quite different; All About Eve will receive a piece on their own. I recall seeing Tanita on television, who’s about 4 years older than me, and was intrigued by her distinct deep voice, her unusual name and exotic looks. (Tanita’s heritage is part Indo-Fijian, part Malaysian).

there is one song for me that stands out of not only that debut album but her work to date: Twist In my Sobriety. I remember it being performed on the British charts programme, Top of The Pops. Amidst the obligatory artificial smoke rose a different group than the bangles and denim, ostentatious pastel makeup and gyration of the era; instead, a very sober band all in black evening dress with white ties without any obvious makeup; a haunting, trilling oboe, over the most fantastic words I ever have heard.

I long pondered over those lyrics, wondering if there were religious imagery in God’s children taking their toll, the Good Book, and love drawing red from hands like the Crucifixion. Her overall portfolio of words seemed to hint at a very eloquent sense of misfit, yearning and rebellion of young people especially. I read a contemporary article where Tanita was quoted as calling her words, ‘part feet off the ground logic and part elaborate code’. To me, that meant that her lyrics were intended to be opaque to her listeners; but I understood what I took was her wish to cloak her feelings and views in such a way that they were expressed but not revealed. It was a ploy I also used.

Listening now, I am struck again by how Tanita’s music did not sound of its time. The 1980s as I recall them were the era of the keyboard, and there was a particular palette of sounds. There were ballads written by others to perform (yes there is a hint of derision) and that glassy electronic piano and drum machine to accompany; and the bouncy synth bass and accompaniment of the synthesizer. There were even guitar shaped keyboards. Guitars themselves were generally electric, often brightly coloured, (pre the bowl shaped semi acoustic) and make me think of the busy Level 42 and ‘Don’t Get Me Wrong’ plucky style.