1999 Steps: Heartbeat/Tragedy

In hindsight, it seems to me that posterity has treated the nineties as something of a faceless decade with no identity of its own. For example, if I were invited to a fifties, sixties, seventies or eighties theme party then I'd know roughly what to expect and what to dress as. The stereotypes are so ingrained that, to take the eighties, I'd know to dress up with big hair and a pastel suit with the sleeves rolled up rather than as, say, a striking miner or a Falklands veteran. What would be the basis of a nineties theme night I wonder? Would it even be possible to organise one?

Perhaps; on one level at least I suppose I'd consider going as a raver with a smiley face T shirt, beanie hat and a whistle, but is this imagery as deeply entrenched among the general population as the uniform of leather jacket and quiff on a fifties style Teddy boy? Probably not. But then on another level, deep within the archives of my mind, I'd always filed Steps away as an illustration of the archetypical nineties band - that is, poppy, clean cut, colourful, dance friendly and totally unthreatening. Which is kind of how I look back on that decade and so it comes as no small surprise to find Steps didn't appear until the tail end of the decade I had them in mind as dominating. So maybe there isn't one defining image that sums up the decade Oh well, best get on then.

A double A side, 'Tragedy' sets out the Steps manifesto in four and a half minutes of pop with a capital P. A cover of the Bee Gees former number one, Steps (or rather, producer Pete Waterman) strip the Wagnerian sturm and drang of the original back to the rail of the basic melody, which the Steps gang then ride with wild abandon and no deviation either left or right. In Steps' world, it's all about the chorus; The Bee Gees built up to it with an arc of dread ("Here at night in a lost and lonely part of town, held in time in a wad of tears I slowly drown") that exploded with the chorus like Gideon's trumpet on the end of days: "When the feelings gone and you can't go on it's tragedy".

Overblown it certainly is, but it's inescapable too yet Steps and their Anglo Abba presentation slip from verse to chorus with barely a skipped heartbeat or key change in a way that blands it into nothing more than a neat dance move (check out the 'Plus' boast on the sleeve) that turns the tragedy into a pseudo celebration. It's functional and effective, but only in the way that using a Renaissance oil painting to cover a stain on the wall is functional and effective and the end result misses the whole angsty point of the song by a mile. It may well be Steps' defining song, but I think it defines the decade as a whole far better. And I don't mean that as a compliment.

Flip side 'Heartbeat' is an original ballad and far more pleasing. The intro's plink plink piano and "Woohoo wooo whoooo" vocals suggests a generic pot boiler of effected misery is on the cards, but 'Heartbeat' then confounds expectation by riding a sleek bed of air seamlessly driven by a rhythm as smooth as cream pouring from a jug. "You are only a heartbeat away, baby and my love one day will find you it will remind you" - yes, it's another load of vacuous platitudes and gooey eyed sentimentality, but it's created by people who clearly know what they're doing and the value of a timely key change, all of which ensures the packaging is superior enough to be of lasting use long after the chocolates inside have melted.