Music on Monday: Time After Time by Fiona Bevan

Usually with our #MusicOnMonday song choice, we pick a track that is older and perhaps didn’t get the attention it deserved. But this week, we thought we’d bring a recommendation to you that is both new and old.

Singer-songwriter Fiona Bevan has released a gorgeous version of Cyndi Lauper’s 1984 hit, Time After Time.

A Little History of the Song

Time After Time was written for Cyndi Lauper‘s first solo album, She’s So Unusual. It was actually the last track written for it and came about when producer Rick Chertoff, as was his habit, asked for “one more track” for the album.

Written hastily on piano by Lauper and Rob Hyman, both drew upon bits of real life and put it in the song. Cyndi’s boyfriend at the time had accidentally broken her alarm clock but had replaced it with one whose tick was so loud, she had to keep it in the bathroom. Hence the line “Lying in my bed, I hear the clock tick and think of you“. Whereas Rob had just split up at that time and come up with the evocative line: “Suitcase of memories“.

A Simple Heartbreaker

There is a real simplicity to Time After Time. The verses are essentially a repeated three-note motif. The unfussy keyboard-synth chords and ticking-clock percussion leave space for Lauper to sing around the beat. This style gives the impression of more contemplation than a regular pop song.

On an album with joyous anthems such as Girls Just Want To Have Fun and She-Bop, a bittersweet love ballad such as Time After Time is even more heartbreaking.

Witness Cyndi’s real tear in the final from of the song’s promo video.

Fiona Bevan's Take

If you don’t know Fiona Bevan before (where have you been!!), let us bring you up to speed.

She released a stunning solo album Talk To Strangers in 2014 – if you are a fan of intelligent and melodic quality pop music, seriously check it out! D for Denial, Slo Mo Tiger Glo, Pirates and Diamonds all should come with an Earworm Warning.

Bevan also has become known as a huge accomplished songwriter. She co-wrote the One Direction song Little Things with Ed Sheeran. Steps‘ infectious comeback single Scared of the Dark was co-written by Fiona. She has written for artists as diverse as Backstreet Boys, Mika, Lewis Capaldi, 5 Seconds of Summer, Kylie Minogue and Gwyneth Herbert.

But onto Fiona’s take of Time After Time…

It wisely doesn’t overcomplicate feel of the track. Using just a drum machine with looping guitars, base and voice, it creates a spacious, haunting soundscape.

Bevan’s mesmerising, breathy, unforced vocal style is present and correct here. Her distinctive voice, higher than Cyndi’s lower tones we are used to on the track, lends the song a wistful ethereal quality.

Highly Rec’d for lovers of a poignant ballad.