My Top 1000 Songs #420: Whisper To A Scream

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

File this one under "High School-era Songs I Still Love Because They Remind Me Of High School (Or At Least The Good Parts)."

"Whisper To A Scream (Birds Fly)" is a pretty amazing 1983 single, later issued on The Icicle Works' 1984 self-titled debut. For added confusion, the original UK release had the title reversed--i.e. "Birds Fly (Whisper To A Scream)"--and a different introduction than the US counterpart; plus their US label deleted the "The" from the band's name a la The Facebook. But whatever.

The Liverpool-originated band sounds a bit like fellow Liverpudlians Echo & The Bunnymen--distinctly New Wave, but more guitar- than keyboard-oriented. They actually had a handful of solid  albums, ranging from U2-flavored grandeur to Smiths-tinged jangle (I really like the 1985 follow-up The Small Price Of A Bicycle); but if we're being honest, yeah, this is the one song I still find myself tossing onto playlists with some regularity. And what a song! Joyously catchy, some nifty percussion, and for all its personal high school associations, it avoids some of the 80s touchstones that would make it sound dated.

Live on the BBC 1983:

Live in 2019: