1977 Brotherhood Of Man: Angelo

Now then, what's this? A former Eurovision winning band of two blokes, two women singing a song about some Mexican folks with a title that ends in 'O'. Ah yes, I know, the 'Abba rip-off' comments are a bit lazy - its been done to death on this one, but unfortunately that doesn't make them any less accurate; as Abba were enjoying so much post Eurovision success then why not hitch their cart to that ready made racehorse formula? Why not indeed, and in trying to give their career legs by raising their game from the sickly twee of 'Save Your Kisses For Me', the Brotherhood Of Man offered up this tale of doomed love and suicide.

As I've commented elsewhere, I'm always partial to a song with a story and, as I'm a sucker for a good death ballad too, 'Angelo' should delight. Instead, it leaves me feeling the wrong side of cold. Why? Well for a start the song's 'story' is a model of brevity to say the least; poor boy Angelo falls in love with a rich man's daughter and they run off together to avoid their disapproving parents and......and the next thing you know they're both lying dead in a ditch 'hand in hand'.

Now, I don't expect a three minute pop song to weave a Dickensain web of intrigue, but a little more development than this cynical tug on the heartstrings would have been nice. Because how can you empathise in any way with such tissue thin characters? And perhaps to paper over the shortcomings in the story, 'Angelo' is a little too sharp and shrill to be an enjoyable listen: "they took their lives that night and in the morning light, they found them on the sand, they saw them lying there hand in hand" - such lines are not delivered with a sympathetic tone but with the hardnosed matter-of-factness of two fishwives gossiping over the garden fence. You expect them to follow up with 'I always knew he was a bad lot that Angelo, the baggage'. Elsewhere, 'Angelo' manages to score a plus point with a nice Mariachi drum beat that precedes the chorus, but the gain on the swings is lost on the roundabouts with the shameless (SHAMELESS!) steal of the descending piano motif from 'Dancing Queen'.

'Angelo' is a brash and tacky penny dreadful cash in that's 'Orca: Killer Whale' to Abba's 'Jaws'. Saying that, if on pain of death I was forced to choose which Brotherhood Of Man single I had to listen to on auto repeat while locked in a room for a few decades then I'd probably choose this one. But just because it's the best of a bad bunch that doesn't make it any less irritating.