Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Space Age Love Song (1982)
It's not easy being labeled a one-hit wonder, especially when you've had more than one hit. Forty-plus years later, A Flock of Seagulls still carry that label. They were known more for their haircuts than their music and have become the stereotypical template of a new wave band. But they had some good songs...and some ridiculous haircuts.
The band was formed in 1979 in Liverpool by Mike Score on vocals and keyboards, his brother Ali on drums and Frank Maudsley on bass. After some lineup shuffling, Paul Reynolds joined on guitar, but the band's sound was definitely synth heavy. They released a single in 1981 and another in 1982 before releasing the EP Modern Love is Automatic, which included the song "I Ran (So Far Away)." The fledgling MTV picked up the low-budget video for "I Ran" and it became a huge hit in the U.S., going to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and a number of other charts (Dance/Disco Top 80, Top Tracks), but only #43 in the U.K.
"Space Age Love Song" was the fourth song on the band's self-titled debut. By this point, "I Ran" had established the group as one of the bigger synth-pop acts (dubbed the Second British Invasion by some) going. That song and that video basically defined the band, especially in the U.S. But "Space Age Love Song" was more just a synth-pop song; Reynolds' majestic chiming guitar really carries the tune.
There's not a whole lot to it lyrically. There's no chorus and only like 25 words to the entire lyrics, but the music just captures that vibe of seeing someone across a room and connecting.
"I saw your eyes/And you made me smile/For a little while/I was falling in love/I saw your eyes/And you touched my mind/Although it took a while/I was falling in love."
"'Space Age' was just about intimacy, if you'd like," Score said in an interview with Songfacts. "When you meet somebody there is an instant eye contact if the chemistry is right. If everything is right, you catch their eye...that whole 'across the crowded room/caught your eye' thing. The lyrics explain that: 'I saw your eyes and you made me smile.'"
The song wasn't as huge a hit as "I Ran" but it got up to #30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #34 on the U.K. Singles Chart. Reynolds said the title came about because the band couldn't think of a title for the song and he suggested it because he thought it sounded like a space age love song. Fair enough. The song was later featured in the movie Career Opportunities.
The Seagulls followed the song up later in 1982 with a new single called "Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You," which was their first song to hit the top 10 in the U.K. Another quality banger, for sure. Meanwhile, in the U.S., they played the MTV New Year's Eve Rock n' Roll Ball. Their next album, Listen, came out in April 1983 and they played at the US Festival in May. They also opened for the Police, but the next three singles didn't do as well.
Struggling with a drug problem, Reynolds left the band in the middle of their 1984 tour. The band was never the same after that. They added Gary Steadman (ex-Classix Nouveaux) for their next album, Dream Come True, but it stiffed. The next Flock of Seagulls album (featuring Mike Score and three other guys) didn't come until 1995, but it also flopped.
The original Flock of Seagulls lineup finally got back together in November 2003 for one performance on the VH1 show Bands Reunited; they did a U.S. tour in the fall of 2004. Fifteen years later, the four original members reunited and recorded a new album, Ascension, with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The following year, they recorded an album with extended versions of their biggest hits and then in 2021, they made another album with the Prague Philharmonic, this time performing orchestral versions of their hits (just with less hair; see below). Just last week, the band (Mike Score and three other musicians) announced they'd be releasing a new album next year.
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