In Praise of Moody Midtempo AOR

you got lucky is perfect, that synth

seen a few Cars suggestions (quite rightly IMO) but maybe this one closest to the zone for me?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKIJVKzgoSc

yeah that's a good one

Feels like there should be a Police song that fits. Invisible Sun maybe?

The closest I can think of off the top of my head may be ... "Wrapped Around Your Finger?"

Moody... Blues? Maybe Tuesday Afternoon for a start.

if a police song fits its “every breath you take”

not that I like it or anything

how about Lindsey Buckingham - Trouble

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyONfX5bpyQ

yeah that’s the stuff

Bruce Cockburn - Lovers in a Dangerous Time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IX4gWkFqvU

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

It’s been so long since I listened to this one. Love it so much thank you for reminding me of its existence.

Kim Carnes “Bette Davis Eyes”
Billy Idol “Eyes Without A Face”
Robert Plant “In The Mood”
Roxy Music “More Than This”
Level 42 “There’s Something About You”

Does "Lunatic Fringe" rock too hard?

Phil Collins - “One More Night”
John Stewart feat. Stevie Nicks - “Gold”
seconding The Cars - “Drive”
Alanna Myles - “Black Velvet”
REM - “Man on the Moon”

i'm basically adding a lot of this shit to my playlist , so thx

Paul young - come back and stay?

I mean that’s just straight up synth pop with aor vocals I guess

Bill labounty - nobody’s fool (seriously, this is an all time jam)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51dEUKCMyIk

Ultravox - Vienna

Love that "Nobody's Fool" -- hearing it for the first time now.

We can't forget Glenn!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TToLgW7zuc

This has made me accept that I don't know what is generally meant by "midtempo". My idea ws that it must of course be roughly the mid point between "slow" and "fast", but I was gauging that from a position of "fast" meaning jungle or thrash fast and I guess that's not quite right. LOL.

yeah "You Belong To The City" is essential here, as I understand the cluster. For me it comes from the 2nd half of the 80s, boomers having grasped the technology & wanting to go back to blues rock rather than new wave.

Like I think of this Leonard Cohen performance of "Tower of Song" from 1989. The tempo is mid, even if it doesn't chug like the songs in the OP. Maybe the vibe I'm fixed on is less about driving & more about cities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNPRpHkkGKM

"Midnight Blue" by Lou Gramm is my favorite song in this genre

The tempo thing is tricky. I was counting out Phil's "Long Long Way to Go," and I guess you can count it as ballad slow, but you can also count it as faster eight notes, too. There's no drums in that one, but there is a pulse. "One More Night" seems more strictly a ballad, imo. "Midnight Blue" is incredible, but it's kind of like "Oh, Sherrie" (which I posted even though I'm not sure how or if it fits). It's a power ballad, but sort of an anthemic one, with a once again the release of an exultant chorus.

Context is key, too, which is partly why subjectivity plays a role. That "Tower of Song" does capture a certain something, though it might seem too ... ironic? in a Michael Mann/Miami Vice scenario. It's kind of know-it-when-you-hear-it nebulous.

"Nobody's Fool," I didn't know that one, either!

Sting's harmony on "Long Long Way to Go" is one of his least remarked on and best appearances.

It's great. He and Peter Gabriel are singing on "Take Me Home," iirc.

Btw, YMP, my doubts about Madonna and Spandau Ballet had to do with the "AOR" criterion, not "moody", which is obv subjective.

It seems like we're going for a broad lite rock/pop feel, though.

Twilight - Golden Earring - maybe slightly too many BPM to be midtempo, but nails the mood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1sf2CzEq0w

Yeah, Madonna was pop not AOR, for sure, but for the purposes of this thread I'm including her as classic rock cannon in the (other) AOR/lite (but weirdly dark!) sense. It's really just the Patrick Leonard connection, though, he's a master of this vibe.

This was on Miami Vice and has the drug deal/relationship about to go catastrophically wrong feel, but is it too far afield from the comforting pocket of AOR? You make the call.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0bk6Hbz0ZU

Hmm, good question. Speaking of Michael Mann, it kind of works like this does/did in "Manhunter:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4U0KBvzi7g

Russ Ballard's classic "Voices" too.

Funny how U2's "With Or Without You" fits into this category on paper, but there's nothing evoking criminal activity or adult relationships, so it doesn't fit.

"Live to Tell" works for this, for me, because I think of these songs as effectively moody supermarket/hotel-lobby music and not just strictly in a radio format.

(wrt Michael Mann) almost too obvious to mention would be the stuff Wang Chung did for To Live and Die in L.A.

Mike & The Mechanics already mentioned upthread, but this one covers all the moody 80s tropes — menacing synth, vaguely political lyrics, batshit video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep7W89I_V_g

I thought of that one yesterday! think it fits

love that it was sampled on a Killer Mike song lol

I had actually considered "With or Without You" but felt it didn't fit for similar reasons, despite fitting perfectly on paper. Definitely moody but maybe not spooky enough? But this one works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Re5fiSY8Y

Diana Ross - it’s your move

^^^^^^

Going down that U2 road also gets you to AOR adjacent stuff like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cit17Si-Vts

And I've never heard or heard of this, but despite being a little too self consciously new wave and quirky it's also sort of adjacent to the theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C_fVnE3xHY

I’m not a musician but I think I notice that most of these songs tend to have only two chords in the verses, songs mostly moving forward with textures and rhythms

Haha, Muchmusic played that Payola$ song endlessly in the late 80s iirc. Bob Rock's old band!

xpost I think there might be something to that, something that differentiates it from sophistipop or yacht rock. It's a kind of minimalist rejection of sophistication, mood over flash, cool but also cold, no doubt inspired/provoked by punk and new wave, which gave people permission to just have a synth patch or flanged guitar chord hang there menacingly.

I guess it works for synths to give a more atmospheric, moody feel. Too many chords doesn’t let the synth stay still and becomes more poppy.

Xpost: haha I was just posting and I just read that you also came to the conclusion that it allows certain instruments to hang in there.

mood over flash, cool but also cold

Son, life is simple. It's either cherry red

or MIDNIGHT BLUE

Re the Police: "King of Pain"?

All of Synchronicity feels like it captures this mood of 80s sophisticated dread, even the individual songs don't all fit.

Interesting that Clapton of all people didn't have an 80s single that fit this mood.