NATION 12 - “LEAVING”
After trying and failing to achieve mainstream success making fluffy, lovelorn synth-pop, John Foxx took a hiatus from music beginning in the mid-1980s. When he finally returned in the 90s, his work in ambient music gathered plenty of acclaim...but his other project from this era, “Nation 12,” is some of the most roundly despised work anywhere in his catalog. What’s wrong with it? Oh, just some breakbeat and techno influence. That’s basically it. I’m not crazy about harder dance music, personally, but the vitriol directed at this sort of stuff is pretty off-base. You know how the rockist critics get about dance music, from disco to trap--they’re always convinced it’s the opposite of “real music,” and it’s going to kill us all. I prefer most of Foxx’s other output to this era, sure, but I hardly think this stuff is so terrible. “Leaving,” in particular, is a standout track that I think has a lot of synth-pop influence too, with very airy, dreamy vocals. Foxx eventually redid most of the tracks from this era in a more straightforward synthwave style, on his better-received albums with Louis Gordon. If you like “Leaving,” be sure to check out “Through My Sleeping”--different title, same song.
