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Level 42 "Leaving Me Now" (1985)

Music Video | 1985

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Album: World Machine
Artist: Level 42
Song: Leaving Me Now
Year-Date: 1985-September

Heads

Director: Nigel Dick

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Genre: ?

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Intro: No
Outro: No
Script/Written by: Nigel Dick
Sound Mix: Stereo
Special: No
Technical Specifications: colour - format unknown

Clipland ID: 944437255

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• Level 42 "Leaving Me Now" (1985) [clipland.com] (this page)

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User Comments

Tuesday 08/19/03

THIS SONG IS CRUSHINGLY SAD :(
YET SO BEAUTIFUL

I haven't seen any music video for this, since I live in the U.S. (I'm sure it had to have been released as a video in the U.K. since Level 42 are from Isle of Wight), but the song itself is phenomenal.

I can only shake my head at the ignorance of Polygram U.K. in choosing not to release this as a massive single, because it has that specific tingle of number one.

For a song of such emotive power, "Leaving Me Now" starts very lowkey and underplayed. It has the standard Level 42 snare kick-off from Phil Gould, then marches along for 8 bars in an almost funereal dirge -- obviously the divorce of the title had serious darkening effect on composer Mark King's mood writing the song --
then King opens vocals with a bitter, accusing reflection: "It seems true love is so rare / Seems all I've known is deceit". He fondly recalls the good points of his lover, musing, "Your laughter fills the air"; but there is a hint of scorn to her merriness, suggesting he was tricked: "Once more, I'm facing defeat." Standard Level 42 "Angst of Marriage" fare. But then the chorus arrives suddenly -- about one verse quicker than in 42's usual songs -- and the listener realizes he or she is not hearing the average Level 42 clip, but the one song of theirs that had number one hit potential.

The chorus has a vague soulfulness to it, a hint of black American Seventies romanticism; it does a quick two-step before every sung verse, and swings in a mournful A-Bb to F that, stunningly, is never minor; the chorus itself is miraculous in that there is not a minor chord in it -- the minors are reserved for the slightly whingeing verse where King tells the story -- yet the chorus is assuredly sadder-sounding than the verses ever become. King braces himself in the chorus lyrics, convincing himself of the inevitability of his relationship's demise: "And I suppose you'll be leaving me now," he says (you can almost hear the British drawl). He spends the verses flinging venomous accusations at his unseen ex-lover and even levels an icy threat, delivered expertly: "some people kill for less," he sings on a sea of black female vocalists standing behind him like a Greek tragedy chorus, and his tone in relating it is chilling. Choruses he spends alternatively upbraiding his wife for cheating and leaving, then philosophizing on the idiocy of even believing in love in the first place.

Overall, if you've ever been through a breakup -- and specifically, been dumped -- this song has it all. I have not personally been dumped but was the vile dumpER referred to in this song (and save it: I know my day is coming), but I witnessed firsthand my sister being dumped by a man she loved very much, after seven years, suddenly and frivolously. I spent 10 minutes weeping listening to this song because it said the same words she did. This is THE BREAKUP SONG. There is no equal!

Level 42 performed perhaps the best single of their career here, given a platinum keyboard gloss by Nigerian-British producer Wally Badarou (if you like new wave and new age, the underappreciated and underrated Badarou is a must-hear; and if you're a MIDI keyboardist he has influenced you more than you think -- check him out and see) and wearing some of the finest chords the Brit pop group ever spun. The ending in particular is absolutely heartbreaking, saturating probably all 24 tracks at its disposal in a cresting, crashing sea of elegant fifths, angelic thirds and a final, spare piano etude from Badarou that has to be heard to be believed. This critic is a tough listener and the ending of this song had me bawling. There aren't enough tears in the world or in me to listen to "Leaving Me Now" twice in a row; it's just too much.

Best to purchase WORLD MACHINE and just listen once. Then tuck the CD away in a nice safe place, wait a few years, and listen again; that's what I did. Few indeed are the albums with the emotional resonance to be listened to with caution owing to their raw intensity; WORLD MACHINE is just that type of album, with great singles like "Good Man In A Storm" and so on; but the final track of the first side -- which with any sense should have actually been the final track on the album -- "Leaving Me Now" is the most deeply affecting breakup song I have ever heard. Ever. Period.

If you are not sobbing in anguish and thanking God on your knees for the gift of music and its beauty by the last two fading piano bars of this oft-neglected, never-released number one hit by English jazzpop group Level 42... frankly you scare me and you're probably not human.

Go out and buy this CD now before Polygram or something else makes it unacquirable. Then get dumped by your boyfriend, pop in side one, F-fwd to the last track, and get some tissues.