My Top 1000 Songs #958: The Edge Of Forever

[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.]

The Dream Academy are probably best remembered for "Life In A Northern Town," the opening track on their 1985 self-titled debut; it's a track that, though very much of the 80s, has a sort of ethereal, timeless quality all its own. The second track on the album, though, is about as 80s as it gets, from the keyboard tone to the production, an album that simply screams mid-80s, MTV-friendly, synth-driven new wave pop music.

Of course, some of that vibe is likely entangled in the song's brief appearance in 1986's Ferris Bueller's Day Off (it plays in the background as Ferris kisses Sloane [the lovely Mia Sara, who pretty much disappeared after the film] near the end). It's one of those cinematic needle-drops that's almost too perfect, impeccably deployed, making it impossible to hear the song as just a song once you've seen the movie. But if you haven't seen the movie and the track doesn't instantly shift you into high school/college mode--and maybe it's just of my generation?--it's still a pretty damn fine song, a great example of both the pros and cons of 80s synth-based new wave, instantly dated yet hard to get out of your head. And the pivot from quiet ballad to soaring anthem in the chorus, emotional falsetto and reverb and keyboard hook (and later, of course, a bit of sax solo), is some pretty fucking all-time dynamics.

As seen in Ferris Bueller:

2022 remake by the Orange Peels: