Review: “Get Your Kicks” by Fancy (Vinyl, 1985)

Today’s Pop Rescue from an uncertain fate is the 1985 debut album Get Your Kicks by German disco pop artist, Fancy. Will this be a truly Fancy affair, or will you want to Kick it out? Read on…

Fancy’s 1985 debut album, ‘Get Your Kicks’

This 7 track album opens the delightful tinkling synths of Colder Than Ice, and it instantly leaps into an 80s europop sound. Musically it reminds me somewhat of Ken Laszlo meets bits of Erasure’s Love To Hate You. Despite the plentiful “she’s colder than ice” lyrics, the song itself is a catchy cheerful song.

This is followed by the titular Get Your Kicks, and this continues the synth-pop brilliance. It’s so far soooo good.

L. A. D. Y O follows this, and this is quite a bouncy pop number, reminding me a bit of Ottawan’s sound. This song is lyrically a bit weaker, but musically retains the wonderful synth sound from the previous tracks, so it just about passes through without real fault.

Side one comes to a close with “Special Mix” Slice Me Nice/Chinese Eyes, which were Fancy’s two big hits before the album. Again, we’re back to a wonderful synth pop sound with lots of plodding synth lines and drum machines. Musically and vocally it again reminds me of Ken Laszlo, and Slice Me Nice is a great catchy track, which gave Fancy a hit single in Europe. This then gives away in true 80s megamix style to a sudden cut to Chinese Eyes which was a big hit in Europe. This track is similarly catchy, and thankfully doesn’t carry an awkward undertone.

Side two opens with some plodding synths before vocals shout Check It Out. There’s some nice vocal harmonies here in the lead up to Fancy in the verse, and they return for the choruses. At times, this reminds me musically of Off The Wall by Michael Jackson. The wonderful underlying chugging synths keep it held together.

Blood And Honey is up next and this has a wonderful disco bass line set against some synth strings. Fancy delivers his vocals in breathless contrast over a wonderful range of synth laden sequences. This is a gentler track, but it sounds wonderful.

The album closes with In Shock, which feels like you could easily mix with Ken Laszlo’s Hey Hey Guy, and Divine’s You Think You’re A Man. The pacey high pitched synths are lovely, resulting in an uptempo catchy number.

Fancy’s debut single Slice Me Nice.

Vedict

Overall, this album is a wonderful slice of 80s synth pop. At times, Fancy’s vocals are a little buried, and it would be nicer to hear them better, but his delivery is otherwise perfect in contrast to the layered synths and frantic 80s sampled beats.

Having never heard of Fancy before, and being lured purely by the eye catching sleeve, I really am pleased with this pop rescue. Wonderful.