For My Sunday Song #408, Harrison has picked a song from a band that was no surprise to me. He is a huge Electric Light Orchestra fan and to get a song from them was expected. The song of choice this time around is “Yours Truly 2095” from the band’s 1981 album ‘Time’. It was the band’s 9th album and was a concept album about basically time travel. I mean it is a little more detailed then that, but we aren’t here to talk about the album. We are here to talk about the song which was written by Jeff Lynne.
The song itself is about a guy who travels to 2095 and meets a Fembot (gynoid) and it makes him think of his girlfriend from back in 1981. The robot is smart with an IQ of 1001, but is cold and unkind and is nothing like his girl. Maybe some day he would “feel her cold embrace and kiss her interface”, but for now he won’t touch the fembot. He misses the warm and heartfelt touches of his actual girlfriend. I love the line “I met someone who looks a lot like you / She does the things you do / But she is an IBM”. It says they are trying to recreate the human contact with a robot, but she is really only a computer. A very cold world that would be. But the guys from Big Bang Theory would be ecstatic if this happened. They always wanted to build a sexbot.
The music is pure new wave, early 80’s synth pop. The vocals have the style of “Video Killed the Radio Star” as they are very processed. The song feels metallic and cold in its delivery. Very high tech for the time to with all the synths. Robotic noises throughout and the “2095” lyrics is spoken in a robot voice. A catchy little tune and as strange as it sounds.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 