Alison Moyet’s voice is a rare gem in the musical landscape. Her distinctive contralto, rich with depth and emotion, has captivated audiences for decades. Unlike many contemporary singers, Moyet doesn’t rely on vocal acrobatics or flashy techniques. Instead, she employs a raw, unfiltered approach that allows her to convey vulnerability, strength, and a profound understanding of human experiences.
While she is not of the star-making constellations that envelop Celine Dion, Adele, Beyonce’ or Mariah Carey, Moyet has secured a spot in her native UK as a powerhouse performer and beloved figure who just so happens to have released Key, a 16-song reworking of her singles and album deep cuts from the past 40 years as well as two new unreleased songs.
If there is any career that has diversified itself as wide and long, it’s Moyet’s. The irony of having a high-profile stance in the UK, while the US has largely ignored her has not stopped the once teenage punk rebel called “Alf” from leaving a mark stylistically and vocally on the UK charts.
Moyet first came to prominence as one half of the synth-pop duo Yazoo (Yaz in North America). After her first band broke up, she placed an advert in the weekly music paper Melody Maker in late 1981, looking for musicians to form a “rootsy” blues band. Her only reply was from Vince Clarke, the founder and chief songwriter for Depeche Mode. Clarke had left under a cloud of dissatisfaction soon after that band’s debut album Speak & Spell was released. He decided to contact Moyet.
Despite the fact they’d grown up in the same town (Basildon), they’d never formally met. Clarke, however, was eager to keep his record deal with Mute and keep their formation as a duo. Their differences in musical styles were markedly contrasting: Moyet was a blues traditionalist and Clarke couldn’t wrap his head around an artist like Muddy Waters. Yet Clarke was successful in submitting their first single “Only You” backed with a newly written song “Situation” to the powers-that-be at Mute.
The single reached number two on the UK charts in March 1982 which led to the rapid scheduling for their debut album Upstairs at Eric’s. Under somewhat unorthodox circumstances (which included making the album in the morning hours), the album, released in August, was a success reaching number two on the UK Official Charts.
Clarke admitted there were no serious designs behind the sessions, telling The Quietus in 2012, “I didn’t really know what I was doing in the studio and Alison hadn’t much experience of being in a recording studio, so everything was new.”
The video for “Don’t Go” went into heavy rotation on the year-old US cable channel MTV which cemented their visual representation – Moyet with her New Romantic foppery and Clarke as the evil genius on the keyboards – and elevated the duo’s impact on the dance club floor. And while a tour followed, the subtle cracks in their partnership were beginning to form.
Clarke had felt Yaz was a one-off project; in the meantime, Moyet’s novice status fueled by her insecurity and lack of communication with her partner, was a disaster waiting to happen. Unsurprisingly, their next album You and Me Both released in July 1983 was preceded by their disbandment a few weeks before the album dropped.
Moyet was able to parlay her well-known contralto delivery into her first solo album Alf. Working with mega-producers Tony Swain & Steve Jolley, she crafted a relatable and commercial-sounding debut (including “Invisible,” written especially for her by Motown legend Lamont Dozier) that resonated with the record-buying public and deposited her at the Number One spot on the UK charts in November 1984. However unbeknownst to her and the rest of the world, there was something even bigger on the horizon.
After the UK success of the star-studded Band Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” organizer Bob Geldof planned what he called a “global jukebox” event for the following year. On July 13, 1985, Moyet dueted with Paul Young on the Marvin Gaye classic “That’s the Way Love Is” in the afternoon, and at the finale she along with Geldof, David Bowie, and Pete Townshend joined Paul McCartney onstage at Wembley Stadium to sing “Let It Be” (albeit to boost a McCartney microphone snafu). That ultimately gave Moyet her highest-profile performance to date.
But as her career moved forward and despite a string of best-selling pop albums, Moyet felt the stifling restraints of producing material that didn’t resonate with her true self. In 1991 she began the long fight to remove herself from her Sony contract, and after 1994’s Essex, it was a battle that would prevent her from releasing material for the next eight years.
Moyet had been performing during this dry spell, providing guest vocals for Ocean Colour Scene and The Lightning Seeds, on television with Sinead O’Connor and Dusty Springfield, touring on the UK leg of Lilith Fair, and making her stage debut in Chicago. 2002 saw the end of her litigation with Sony; the album Hometime arrived to accolades, receiving nominations for the BRIT Awards and the Mercury Prize.
Her album releases were fairly consistent throughout the 2000’s with Voice (2004), The Turn (2007), and into the aughts with The Minutes (2013) and the critically-acclaimed Other (2017). The latter was her last release of brand-new material and her last world tour. However, in May 2024 Moyet surprised everyone by announcing (after a seven-year absence from the music scene) her latest full-length album Key would be released in October.
Unlike Other which focused on the emotional propositions of life at middle age, including as Moyet noted “Dyslexia, locked-out syndrome, diversity, Persephone, doggedness and the Internet,” Key is a 16-song reworking and reinvention of Moyet’s legacy catalog, with a divergent body of work extending back to her first solo album Alf. The track list also includes her collaboration with The Lightning Seeds’ Ian Broudie (“My Best Day”) and two previously unreleased tunes, the slow-burn downbeat ballad “Such Small Ale,” and “The Impervious Me,” a gilded synth-pop piece with touches of David Bowie vocal cadence.
Key has not only reintroduced Moyet’s presence by way of her unmistakable depth and emotional resonance, she has further planted the seeds of genuine growth for an audience that truly deserves to “spend time” with her songs.
-Amy Hughes
Photo: Alison Moyet (Naomi Davison)
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