One Track Lover

She’s smooth. Like ice. Cold to the touch and it isn’t very nice when you’re left. Alone. You let her treat you badly, she leaves you hanging on the phone.

You will immediately fall into one of two camps when you address the design of this one. You’ll instantly get it or not. If you’re familiar with Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, you’ll know that it’s set in the deepest, darkest 80s. And what could be more 80s than Duran Duran? Maybe Culture Club. Or the Cold War.

Anyway, it’s an obvious (to me) reworking of the iconic cover of the ‘Rio’ single (and album), released by the Brummie New Romantics in 1982. The promo video probably doesn’t harbour(!) great memories for Simon Le Bon as it features the band fannying about on a yacht a couple of years prior to his own IRL boat capsizing. Foreshadowing AND shoulder pads. Welcome to the 1980s.

‘One Track Lover‘ is a song from the show, concocted by Dr. Lucien Sanchez, played by Todd Rivers, played by Matt Berry. Which all sounds very Inception. It’s a hideously accurate depiction of mid-80s soft rock and sees Sanchez / Rivers frustrated at not being able to win the affections of co-worker Liz Asher. Played by Madeleine Wool. Played by Alice Lowe. Full version here if you need it. Which you obviously do.

Soooo, I rebuilt the single cover from scratch and converted the woman to align with Asher / Wool. With the doctor overalls, her distinctive shirt, beads and name tag.

Shoutout to the artist Patrick Nagel, who died tragically early. As stated before, the cover is the absolute epitome of early 1980s British record cover design and is fondly thought of by people into the music or not.