One record at a time: 565. Telex - Neurovision

“Neurovision” is Telex’s second album, originally released in 1980. I am playing the 2023 remastered vinyl edition, which can still be found on various websites at an astonishingly low price. As well as giving the music a fresh sheen, the surviving members of the band retrieved the original master tapes from the vault and made a few subtle changes to both the mixes and the running order. Having never heard the original version, I cannot say whether those alterations significantly affect the overall impression the album makes, although at this price I am not inclined to worry either way.

The record broadly follows the formula established by the debut: jaunty, deceptively simple pop songs constructed from bright analogue synthesisers, clipped rhythms and melodies that lodge themselves in the brain with suspicious efficiency. Reserved vocalist Michel Moers alternates between a cool, detached deadpan and an unexpected croon, depending on what the song demands or, perhaps, how sociable he was feeling that day. Throughout, Telex perform with tongue firmly in cheek and a knowing look that suggests they are simultaneously celebrating pop music and quietly taking it apart to see how ridiculous it can become.

There’s also something strangely subversive, and rather thrilling, about a band entering the Eurovision Song Contest with a song that gently mocks the very competition in which it is appearing. Telex did exactly that with “Euro-Vision”, Belgium’s entry for the 1980 contest. It is a lightweight, jaunty and deliberately facile song that captures Eurovision’s fondness for bright tunes, forced enthusiasm and the occasional costume that looks as though it has been assembled during a power cut. The band reportedly hoped to finish last, but even here things did not quite go to plan: they came 17th out of 19 entries. For most acts that would have been a disappointment. For Telex, it was arguably an irritating brush with success.

That same knowingly playful approach continues with “Tour de France”. It has nothing to do with the Kraftwerk song released three years later, beyond sharing a title and demonstrating that electronic musicians were already surprisingly interested in professional cycling. Where Kraftwerk approach the subject of the race literally, capturing the rhythm, machinery and physical exertion of the race itself, Telex do something rather more inventive. They turn the Grande Boucle into a metaphor for pursuing an elusive love interest across France, transforming the gruelling cycle race into an equally exhausting romantic chase, albeit with rather less Lycra and fewer clandestine blood transfusions.

Songs such as “We Are All Getting Old” or the cover of “Dance to the Music” are so catchy that they remain lodged in your head long after you have lifted the needle. That is usually the sign of a memorable tune, although occasionally it is merely the symptom of an especially persistent one. With Telex, the distinction hardly seems to matter. They leave you humming their melodies whether you want to or not, which is surely exactly where they want you: impressed, mildly irritated and unable to shake them.

“Neurovision” may not be a dramatic reinvention of Telex’s debut, but it develops their peculiar formula with confidence and no shortage of good ideas. Its wit can occasionally feel more memorable than its songs, yet there is enough invention, charm and melodic persistence here to make it far more than an electronic curiosity. It is a clever, enjoyable album by a band who understood that pop music could be taken seriously without having to behave seriously. 3.5/5