The Zummos - Modern Marriage FLAC

Apparently Modern Marriage for 1985 meant that when you married, you started a synth-pop band and wore matching pastel outfits and mimicked each other's big hairstyles. The music is much better than one might think based on the cover, which initially attracted me to taking a listen.

At first, I thought that Fran Drescher was in a band, or my Italian aunt from Westchester, BUT then my eyes focused to the guy in the matching pink ladies suit jacket...and oh those shoulder pads...what fun!

The production for 1985 isn't as treble-ly as one might expect. I was pleasantly surprised that there wasn't too much gated-reverb used on the drums—just enough-ah to let you know it's from the mid eighties.

“'Scusi Mi Please” starts out the record— and, oh what a doozy— an instant earworm! Janice sings all of the tracks on the album and on 'Scusi…' she even sings in Italian. Her singing combined with the lively synths and guitar will be a guilty pleasure.

“An Obsession Over You” immediately sounded familiar and was probably the 'hit' since it was released as a 12” mix. I swear I've heard it on the radio before…

“Please Stop Dancing”, appears to be written about a husband and wife (maybe the duo), where the husband can't stop dancing and ignores the pleas of his wife to go home—One can only imagine him saying, “But the party's only starting, and I've only had two litres of wine!”, which might be a good reason why he doesn't stop. A dash of synthetic accordion adds some flair to the mix.

“Nightmare” (this could've been a track on a b-rated horror flick—maybe Sleepaway Camp 3?),
“Leopards in Love”(odd and quirky), the title track, and more provide plenty of entertainment value for the price.

One can tell that the duo put a considerable amount of time into the arrangements, since there are some variations of the music thrown in to make it much more pleasurable than your standard 80's throwaway pop. The music is fun and freeing, and I imagine it's just like putting on a pink sports jacket and not having a care in the world of who is watching you dance.

Produced by Joe Jackson and the Zummos.