If I Ever by Red Flag

I mentioned briefly in my last post that Red Flag largely made their 80s career by sounding like Depeche Mode. Granted, they lacked some of the artistry and subtlety of Depeche Mode, but they made up for that in dance floor friendliness. They had a small string of minor dance chart hits: "Broken Heart," "If I Ever," and "Russian Radio" then synthpop essentially crashed as a viable mainstream marketable force. Red Flag continued for many years, and they've got some good post-80s stuff ("Cliche" and "Nevermind http" from mid-90s Caveat Emptor are amongst my favorite of their subsequent tracks, but they went quite a bit further with darker, more goth-oriented synthpop as the decade turned over to "the Noughties."

Sadly, as they were starting to work up some steam for some renewed success, the lead singer committed suicide in the early 2000s. The "other guy" from the band (they were two brothers) has announced plans to continue with the name, although it remains to be seen what he will do exactly.

Red Flag was one of the few bands, back in the day, where I joined their official fan club, although other than getting a picture, a form letter, and a catalog from which to order more merchandise, that didn't amount to much.