Answers To Nothing
	Produced by Midge Ure and Rik Walton
	Released on September 1988
	UK CHART POSITION #30 . . . US CHART POSITION #88
	Find it at GEMM
VK 41649 cover

I ’ve taken to scanning the A&E channel during my daily hour of half-attended television (it used to be the Arts & Entertainment channel before becoming Crimelab 2000), and managed to catch a few minutes of a crime investigation that included a suicide note where the person’s last written words were: I’m going to eat a peanut butter sandwich and then go to sleep. (“Sleep” in this case being a veiled reference to suicide.) Now, affecting my best Dennis Hopper impression: That’s gotta mean something, man. Maybe it means we’re all hungry for something. Or maybe it means we never stop living, even when we know we’re dying. Or maybe it means that this guy really, really liked peanut butter. I dunno. But I’m convinced it means something. It’s the kind of tiny moment that hides a great truth, the lost contact lens under the Coke bottle cap. And then there’s Answers To Nothing, which unfortunately lives up to its title. Midge Ure is supremely talented, his knack for melodies unfailing, his accomplices accomplished. Yes, yes, yes. All that. And yet it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. Its electronically achieved worldbeat adds not one iota to Peter Gabriel’s So. The social conscience couched in clever pop songs fails to raise any hair unlifted by the music of Phil Collins. For superior synth pop, see Ultravox. It’s not just product, it’s safe product. Ure’s telescopic vision is backwards; he takes big ideas and makes them seem small, even cozy. It doesn’t sound much different than Pure, but those were at least love songs. You’re not gonna cure the world’s ills with cough syrup. Even engaging the boundless talents of Kate Bush for “Sister And Brother” proves a mercilessly dull avenue. I’m just being grumpy, no doubt the result of too much pop music in my diet lately. But anyone looking for intoxicating ideas will have to settle for rinsing your mouth with the same wine ten different times and not swallowing a drop of it.

TRACK LISTING

1. ANSWERS TO NOTHING    4:29
2. TAKE ME HOME    3:04
3. SISTER AND BROTHER    5:51
4. DEAR GOD    4:59
5. THE LEAVING (SO LONG)    4:14
6. JUST FOR YOU    4:36
7. HELL TO HEAVEN    4:03
8. LIED    4:49
9. HOMELAND    4:39
10. REMEMBRANCE DAY    (Midge Ure/Danny Mitchell)    4:27
    
    CD reissue bonus track
    
11. HONORARE
12. OBOE
13. MUSIC #1
14. SISTER AND BROTHER (SINGLE EDIT)
    
    All songs written by Midge Ure unless noted

CREDITS

MIDGE URE -- vocals, guitars, keyboards
MARK BRZEZICKI -- drums
ROBBIE KILGORE -- additional keyboards
Craig Armstrong -- piano (3)
Steve Brzezicki -- bass guitar
Kate Bush -- duet vocals (3)
Robin and Ali Campbell -- guest backing vocals (3)
Carol Douet -- guest backing vocals (3)
Yona Dunsford -- guest backing vocals (3)
Mick Karn -- bass guitar (10)
Mark King -- bass guitar
Rik Walton -- engineer, mixing (8)
Del Palmer -- engineer for Kate Bush vocals
Bob Clearmountain -- mixing
John Hudson -- mixing (3)
Robin Barton -- photography
Georges Mathieu -- "Answers"
Peter Saville -- art direction
Peter Saville Associates -- design

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