Modern English

Although the catchy melodies and positive, love-themed words in "I Melt with You" could suggest Modern English function as a cheerful pop group, this track stands out as unusual among their releases, as the ensemble's style draws from somber, intense post-punk. Originating in Colchester, the group adopted a self-sufficient method for issuing their initial 1979 single, and between 1980 and 1984 served as central figures on the budding 4AD label, putting out Mesh & Lace along with Hugh Jones-produced efforts After the Snow and Ricochet Days plus several singles that frequently appeared on U.K. indie listings. The song "I Melt with You," cut during sessions for their sophomore LP and included in Valley Girl, marked their global emergence, especially Stateside where it reached the Billboard Hot 100 and later received gold status. For the rest of the 1980s and the following twenty years, vocalist Robbie Grey directed different versions of Modern English across four LPs on an equal number of record companies. From the late 2000s onward, the roster has included Grey along with original 4AD-period colleagues Gary McDowell, Michael Conroy, and Stephen Walker. On their own, they have put forth Take Me to the Trees in 2017 and 1 2 3 4 in 2024 while maintaining a steady schedule of live shows that honor their catalog, notable irrespective of their major success.

The Lepers came before Modern English. Featuring vocalist Robbie Grey (aka Jack Midnight), guitarist Gary McDowell (aka Justin Sane), and drummer Richard Brown, the Colchester-based Lepers mainly played at parties, though their debut performance supported Siouxsie and the Banshees and Adam and the Ants. After bassist Michael "Mick" Conroy joined in 1979, the Lepers transformed into Modern English—their straightforward punk evolved into more artistic post-punk influenced by Joy Division and Wire—and completed their five-piece lineup by adding keyboardist Stephen Walker. That same year they independently issued their sparse, foreboding first single, "Drowning Man." Once signed to the emerging 4AD imprint, Modern English delivered the singles "Swans on Glass" and "Gathering Dust" in 1980 and appeared on Presage(s), the label's inaugural compilation. Before year's end the band also taped their initial session for John Peel's BBC Radio 1 program, using the occasion to air unreleased material. Three of the four transmitted tracks later appeared on Mesh & Lace, the group's debut album, which arrived in April 1981. Packed with raw fury, urgent rhythms, and swirling electronics, the LP earned mixed reviews yet climbed to number five on the U.K. indie chart, aided by Peel's ongoing endorsement. The non-album single "Smiles and Laughter," whose B-side "Mesh & Lace" was the fourth song previewed during that first Peel session, followed later in the year.

Mesh & Lace was self-produced. For the next record the band refined their dense textures under Hugh Jones, whose reputation had already been cemented by work with contemporaries Echo & the Bunnymen, the Sound, and the Teardrop Explodes. The resulting May 1982 album After the Snow contained the propulsive, slashing post-punk staple "Life in the Gladhouse" (remixed for 12" by labelmate Martyn Young of Colourbox), yet overall it sounded leaner and more luminous, as heard in the welcoming "Someone's Calling" (remixed for the same 12" by New York DJ Mark Kamins) and the heartfelt "I Melt with You." In early April of the following year the latter single entered the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S., where Sire held the license, and rose to number 78 a couple of weeks later. Near the close of that month the romantic teen comedy Valley Girl opened in the States with "I Melt with You" prominently featured, and the accompanying video entered MTV rotation. An enduring minor hit of the new wave era, "I Melt with You" lifted After the Snow to number 70 on the U.S. album chart and sales exceeding 500,000 copies, later recognized near the decade's end with an RIAA gold certification.

A second Hugh Jones production, Ricochet Days, reached the U.K. indie chart in March 1984 and peaked at number five (number 93 in the U.S.), supported by the genial singles "Chapter 12" and "Hands Across the Sea." That year Robbie Grey also participated in This Mortal Coil, the studio project of 4AD head Ivo Watts-Russell; he sang a version of Colin Newman's "Not Me" that appeared on TMC's It'll End in Tears. (TMC had debuted the prior year with a single containing a medley of Modern English's "16 Days" and "Gathering Dust"—with Michael Conroy on bass and Gary McDowell sharing guitar duties with Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie.) Ricochet Days proved the band's final album for 4AD and was followed in 1986 by Stop Start, their last release for Sire in the U.S. Produced by Stephen Stewart-Short with Alan Moulder assisting on mixing, Stop Start was recorded without Richard Brown or Stephen Walker and incorporated session players plus newcomer Aaron Davidson on keyboards and additional guitar. The group's most commercial-sounding effort, it charted in the lower half of the Billboard 200. Its sole single, "Ink & Paper," was co-written by the Rubinoos' Tommy Dunbar. The band disbanded afterward, yet Grey and Conroy resurfaced in 1990 on the TVT label with Pillow Lips. That July the album's re-recorded version of "Melt with You" slightly surpassed the original by reaching number 76 on the Billboard Hot 100. Label disputes led to another hiatus—Conroy responded by joining Stereolab and Moose—until 1996, when Grey, accompanied by Matthew Shipley and Ted Mason, returned with Everything's Mad on Imago.

Grey kept guiding Modern English, and in 2009 he rejoined most of his original bandmates. Soundtrack, which Grey had cut earlier in the decade with Hugh Jones, Matthew Shipley, Nik Williams, Jon Solomon, and Steven Walker (a guitarist distinct from keyboardist Stephen Walker), appeared on Darla the next year. Reenergized, Modern English toured widely before recording Take Me to the Trees, featuring Grey, Michael Conroy, Gary McDowell, and Stephen Walker, and produced and mixed by the briefly reactivated Martyn Young. The album surfaced in February 2017. Though a planned 40th-anniversary North American tour was canceled in 2020, the band livestreamed a London concert that September and issued the resulting CD/DVD package After the Snow Live from Indigo at the O2 the following year. After further roadwork the group made their next album, 1 2 3 4, primarily capturing live takes in the studio to preserve gig energy. Weeks before its February 2024 release, "I Melt with You" earned an RIAA gold certification.