Released on the Rough Trade record label in 1981, "The Sweetest Girl" (also known as "Sweetest Girl") became Scritti Politti's first song to be a hit, peaking at #64 on the U.K. singles chart. According to the The Sweetest Girl Songfacts, was cited by The New York Times as one of the ten best singles of the year. Scritti Politti went on to enjoy significant success in the music charts in the U.K. and U.S. as the decade went on, rivaling slick new wave contemporaries such as Duran Duran, The Human League, Simple Minds, and others.
Following this period of fame, however, Gartside became disillusioned with the music industry and the related pressures of being an artist. He retired to the South Wales of his childhood for nearly a decade. He returned to music-making in the late 90s, releasing two critically-acclaimed albums (in 1999 and 2006). As well, the success of the 2006 Mercury Music Prize-nominated 'White Bread Black Beer' release proved to be a major comeback for Gartside. He toured the U.K., Ireland, the U.S.A., and Japan in the same year, these efforts being his first time performing live on stage for about twenty-five years.
Gartside is known for his distinctive, whispering vocal style; he was described by one critic as having "a voice that's eternally 14 years old". Born in Cardiff in 1956, Gartside attended Leeds Polytechnic and experienced the Sex Pistols' infamous 'Anarchy tour' in 1977. Like so many others who saw this musical and cultural car crash, he felt inspired to make music. As well, again like so many others, he swiftly became disillusioned with punk's stylistic parameters of the time. Following years of work evolving Scritti Politti's sound, the group's debut studio album, titled 'Songs to Remember', came out on 3 September 1982. Though not a commercial hit, the relase's eccentric set of influences,including 60s pop rock and 70s soul, and many philosophical lyrical references, with Gartside avoiding direct left-wing preaching in favour of confessional storytelling, brought the band serious critical praise.
In 1989, the British music magazine 'Record Mirror' placed 'Songs to Remember' at number fourteen in their critics' list of the best albums of the 80s. Nonetheless, heavy line-up changes occured after that album's release. When 1985's 'Cupid & Psyche 85' came out, that work proved both to be a commercial smash as well as to be innovative in terms its early use of the techniques of sampling and MIDI sequencing. Hit singles such as "Perfect Way", "The Word Girl", "Wood Beez", and "Absolute" brought the group legions of fans.
As stated before, Scritti Politti is known for being, at times, a commercially-friendly outfit, particularly during when Gartside worked with American producer and keyboard player David Gamson and drummer Fred Maher, yet its songs still retained a critically acclaimed, heavily poetic look on life (a factor which, no matter what sound or guise Gartside's current band may adopt, has always been carried through).
In a recent BBC Radio 2 interview, Gartside enthusiastically stated that he will be working on two further albums in the future, one being hip-hop based (a la 1999's Anomie & Bonhomie).
Recently, Gartside has been performing live with Alexis Taylor of Hot Chip - a fellow Mercury Music Prize nominee - and it is rumoured that the pair are currently writing a joint album.
No Fine Lines
Scritti Politti Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Or there are more than I can draw
Cut across some here and there
Between each after and before
Tying everything together
So I can't think it anymore
Please let the possible be still
Let it settle in this place
Along the valley and the hill
To the sea between what maybe
And what won't be and what will
Where do we start?
When do our friends come over?
What matters now though
Is can you reach the windowsill?
The lyrics to Scritti Politti's song No Fine Lines seem to be about the difficulties of defining certain aspects of life or coming to definite conclusions. The idea that there are either no fine lines or more than can be drawn implies that there are either no precise boundaries between things or that there are too many to count. The lines being cut across here and there highlights the fleeting nature of these boundaries, complicating attempts to pin them down.
The singer seems to be struggling to tie everything together, perhaps trying to make sense of the world around them. It's too much to handle, and they want to let the "possible be still" so that they can find some peace. They want to settle into this place "along the valley and the hill" and look out to the sea between what maybe and what won't be and what will, again highlighting the idea of uncertainty.
The final lines of the song are somewhat ambiguous. The questions "Where do we start?" and "When do our friends come over?" could be interpreted as wondering about how to move forward in life. However, the final line "what matters now though is can you reach the windowsill?" is a question that is much more immediate and concrete, perhaps suggesting that in the midst of all the uncertainty, the singer is trying to find something stable and tangible to hold onto.
Line by Line Meaning
And there are no fine lines
There is no definitive boundary
Or there are more than I can draw
There are too many indistinct lines to articulate
Cut across some here and there
The unmarked lines intersect randomly in places
Between each after and before
These lines exist in the space between past and future
Tying everything together
The lines connect all aspects of life
So I can't think it anymore
The complexity inhibits my ability to comprehend
And so it means too much
The magnitude of the situation is overwhelming
Please let the possible be still
Allow the potential outcomes to remain stationary
Let it settle in this place
Permit the ambiguity to become fixed in a particular location
Along the valley and the hill
Throughout the terrain of life
To the sea between what maybe
To the uncertain border between possibilities
And what won't be and what will
And the outcomes that will and won't occur
Where do we start?
What is the beginning point?
When do our friends come over?
When will we have the support we need?
What matters now though
What is significant at this moment
Is can you reach the windowsill?
Can you accomplish the task at hand?
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Green Gartside
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Jan
on Absolute
It should be principle, not principal
Reg Side
on After Six
The context is the dumbed-down public sphere in which all politics is spun and lying is always a matter of how more or less convincing it can be. In its chart-topping heyday Scritti Politti was a pop political project concerned with language and power and this song is a remnant from that, albeit more personalised like most of what's on White Bread Black Beer. The result here is an irony of the kind you might expect to find in a vintage Paul Simon song.