Released via Jive Records, Modern Love Is Automatic is the 3rd 7Inch by A Flock Of Seagulls, my favorite UK new wave band of the 80s and they serve four decent nuggets for us, two are non-album tracks (I changed a song). Modern Love is also opener on their debut album the following year. A few content-related song details: A love-affair between a mismatched pair. As with many of the groups lyrics, harmonies and videos, there is a suggestion of cosmic energy and other-world imagery. The woman is an "automatic" perhaps symbolizing an android of some type. The man is a "cosmic" perhaps from another planet. The song closes with the man "locked away" but the narrator suggesting he is in fact free. - Such futuristic anecdotes are typical for the band and their relaxed music doesn't make the four dead.
Important useful infos: owing to their memorable and unusual style and appearance, A Flock of Seagulls are sometimes referred to with ironic appreciation. The New Musical Express wrote: "Of course, everyone remembers this group now for singer Mike Score's ridiculous back-combed haircut and the fact that they are mentioned in Pulp Fiction. So now they're kind of cool, but in the early 1980s it was a different story." Their dramatic style has drawn much criticism and parody, but the band has also been recognized as a pioneering act, capturing the spirit of their time, particularly with the guitar work of Paul Reynolds and sonically multi-layered hits such as "Space Age Love Song," "Telecommunication," and "Modern Love Is Automatic." The band also is noted for creating a successful concept album, their debut, which alludes to an alien invasion of earth. Billboard writer Robert Christgau applauded their "mechanical lyrics, about a mechanical end of the world," while noting the "aural pleasure" of both the band's debut album and the follow-up.
