Ministry - All Day / Everyday (Is Halloween)

By 1985, Ministry were showing clear signs of a band moving beyond the synthpop of 1983's With Sympathy with a string of landmark singles (and while certainly songs like "Effigy" and "Revenge" off the debut surged with dark, sexy coolness) the revamped group, now signed to Wax Trax!, had emerged as a forerunner to the new futuristic EBM sound. Both "All Day" & "Everyday (Is Halloween)" are two of the best tracks from Ministry’s Synthpop period, laden with the influences of early EBM (just listen to those rhythms & mechanical drums, and they're all a hint of things to come on Twitch) & Darkwave (the gothic atmosphere and synths are on point, here), with both genres being utilized in a highly tasteful way. "All Day" is a gorgeous, haunting little number singing about the woes of the daily grind, sounding like the slightly angrier older brother of something off Depeche Mode's Some Great Reward with its industrial pop sound. Sure, Al Jourgensen's vocals here are goofy as hell, but they're also in good usage and they have a lack of polish that makes them stand out from many of the more commercial Synthpop bands around when this single was released. But Jesus, who could have expected that B-side "Everyday is Halloween" (undoubtedly one of THEE great B-sides of all-time) would come along and completely obliterate expectations as a goth club anthem complete with fucking wicked ass record scratching and that legendary opening line, "Well I live with snakes and lizards and other things that go bump in the night." Both songs are catchy and memorable in a way that isn't annoying, and "Everyday (Is Halloween)" is the ultimate Goth anthem as well, thankfully not being annoyingly cheesy, which satisfies my gothic tendencies greatly. It's basically a very early alternative song about wanting to be left alone to live one's life and dress however they like, no matter how unusual or unconventional it may seem to outsiders.

Ripped to MP3