You and Me Both
| You and Me Both | ||||
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| Studio album by Yazoo | ||||
| Released | 4 July 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1982–83 at Blackwing Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Synthpop | |||
| Length | 40:32 | |||
| Label | Mute | |||
| Producer | Eric Radcliffe and Yazoo | |||
| Yazoo chronology | ||||
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| Singles from You and Me Both | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Melody Maker | average |
| NME | very favourable |
| Robert Christgau | B |
You and Me Both is the second and final studio album by British synthpop duo Yazoo, released on Mute Records in July 1983. The album's title was an ironic reference to the fact that the duo had grown estranged from each other and recorded much of the album separately, and they announced their split a few weeks before the album's release.
You and Me Both gave the group a "posthumous" number one record in Britain and New Zealand, and reached number 69 in the US. Singer Alison Moyet would soon begin a successful solo career, while Vince Clarke formed the short-lived project The Assembly with Yazoo's producer Eric Radcliffe before going on to greater and long-lasting success with the synthpop duo Erasure.
The problems within Yazoo had started even before the recording of You and Me Both. Clarke had never envisioned the band as a long-term project, and was ready to move on after making Upstairs at Eric's, but having already walked out of Depeche Mode after just one album he was persuaded that it would not be a good idea to do the same thing again only a year later. Moyet said, "I think the second album happened because of advice from his publisher, because Vince'd done one album with Depeche and had walked, and then he'd done one album with me and he was ready to walk then. I think that his publisher was going, 'You're mad – you shouldn't be doing this, you should make at least one more record'. But even as we began the second album we knew that it was over, he had already decided he didn't want to work with me anymore." Moyet tried to convince Clarke to reconsider his decision to quit after making a second album, but to no avail.
As with their debut album Upstairs at Eric's, the record was recorded and produced by Yazoo and Eric Radcliffe at Radcliffe's Blackwing Studios in south-east London. However, unlike Upstairs at Eric's which was recorded quickly and mostly at night or early morning due to the studio already being booked during the daytime, Yazoo were able to record You and Me Both "nine to five" and over a longer period of time (the album took four months to make). This suited Clarke, who told Melody Maker, "I think this album was more planned, and to be honest that's the way I like to work". On the other hand, Moyet, whose background was the unpredictability of punk bands and pub rock and who had enjoyed the spontaneous recording process of the first album, complained that, "I just can't work under conditions that I think are contrived, everything has to be done really quickly". Another bone of contention for Moyet was Clarke's refusal to be involved in promotional work for the album, leaving Moyet to talk to the press alone: Clarke freely admitted that "towards the end of the album it was mostly me in the studio because Alison was doing a lot of promotional stuff that I wasn't prepared to do ... I couldn't be bothered". Moyet recalled just how little communication there was between the two of them while making the album: "He'd go in in the mornings, I'd go in in the evenings, he'd do something then later I'd do something on top of it. It was like a patchwork album where there was no discussion or getting excited about each others' things. We just worked separately."
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