“Nobody's Diary” by Yaz

"Nobody's Diary" was the only single lifted from You and Me Both, the second and final album by Yaz (Yazoo back home in Britain), and when it came out in May 1983 the song was already older than the band: Alison Moyet wrote it at about 16, back when she was knocking around bands in South East Essex. It was one of the last things cut for the album, at Eric Radcliffe's Blackwing Studios, and Vince Clarke later recalled that it jumped out at once as the single.

It's synth-pop with a lump in its throat, cool machines against Moyet's big, bruised voice. Yazoo, Radcliffe and Daniel Miller produced it for Mute, and it climbed to number three in the UK. Steven Appleby's sleeve shows a young man so lost in his own thoughts in the bath that he's forgotten to turn off the tap.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.