Songoftheday 8/26/13 - Love come down upon us till you flow like water, burning with the hope of insight..

Icicle Works - "Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)"
from the album Icicle Works (1984)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #37 (two weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 4

Today's Song of the Day is by the new wave band from Liverpool Icicle Works, who came together in the early 80s under singer/songwriter Ian McNabb. Their first release to gain notice in Britain was a jangle-pop single called "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)". Written by McNabb and produced by Hugh Jones, who also helmed acts with a similar sound like Echo & The Bunnymen and Simple Minds, the track originally sputtered in the lower tenth of the chart. Their followup, "Love Is A Wonderful Colour", did much better, peaking at #15 in the UK in 1983. On that popularity, "Birds Fly" was re-released, and did a little better, reaching #52. At this point, the bands' debut album was also released in the US, and like new wave bands like the Fixx and Wang Chung, they did much better over here, as the re-titled "Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)", became their first and only pop hit...

"Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)" reached the top-40 in June of 1984. It would be their only hit on the Hot 100, though in 1987 they scored a top-20 modern rock hit with "High Time". Though the band never again made the top-40 in their native Britain after "Love Is....", they managed to place a dozen singles in the bottom half of that country's top-100 up till 1990's "I Still Want You".

But a  truckload of 1990's janglepop (I'm looking at you, Toad the Wet Sprocket) owe a lot of their sound to this little band.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)

...and here's the band performing "Birds Fly" live..

...and in 1996 "Hippychicks" Soho covered the song for the movie Scream...

Up tomorrow (maybe, if I get home in time): the Mod has some major stalking issues.