Music Arcades: Virginia Astley: Hope in a Darkened Heart

This was one of the first ten CDs I bought, possibly the first five, when it came out, late in 1986. CDs were premium product, at the princely price of £11.99 from the Virgin Megastore at the foot of Fargate, Sheffield.

From the off, Hope in Darkened Heart continues Virginia's penchant for layering deadly words over saccharine arrangements (see Promise Nothing), turned up to eleven. It starts with a duet with David Sylvian, where the two sing, paradoxically together,"Like a corpse deep in the earth, I'm so alone / Restless thoughts torment my soul". Lines like that just jump out at you, but Billy Preston & Syreeta they're not. On A Father, Ginny continues grinding her heel into the groin of her daughter's dad, "If you've no love in you / There's no place here for you". "I'll haunt you forever," she promises in that song. But with the next one, So Like Dorian, it's no more Ms Nice Gal. She's seen into Mr Ex's soul and it's been sold, she says. "I've tasted your tongue like a worm from the grave / Had you inside me, then like a rock beside me."

It's around this point where one wonders if she isn't laying it on just a little too thick.

Thankfully, though the album doesn't exactly lighten up from there, it does at least hint at a more conciliatory tone. I'm Sorry isn't a full-blown mea culpa ("you are the cause of my pain") but does make concessions ("I can't blame you for this"). Unfortunately Virginia's whispy voice means that it's not possible to make out all the words. However, the song does benefit from some sinuous sax lines to complement Ryuichi Sakamoto's synths. The sax player isn't credited, but I'd bet a fiver it's Kate St John.

In truth, Hope in Darkened Heart isn't really more than an EP, at least in terms of original material. Three of the nine tracks had been released before, Love's a Lonely Place to Be on Promise Nothing and A Summer Long Since Passed on both that release and From Gardens… (albeit possibly in a very slightly different version).