Kevin Paige - Kevin Paige

I found a sealed copy and figured why not? It could be really good ... or it could be truly horrific. Staring at me from the cover picture was a dapper looking young man sporting a few days of scruffy stubble looking like a young Rick Springfield (I do not mock Mr. Springfield). As far as I knew, and I knew nothing about this album. It could be anything, as it wasn't opened - kind of like Schrodinger's cat, except it was vinyl. I'm not really a cat person.

I had my fingers crossed and hoped for good.

What I got was actually pretty good. It was a pop record with a bit of crunch, at times a lot of crunch which was pretty great. This is an album that wouldn't have existed without Michael Jackson's Bad, an album I actually bought. Don't ask, since I staunchly avoided getting Thriller ... even though I secretly liked some of the songs. Come on, "Beat It" was worth the ticket price. The other artists this brought to mind first though and actually had more in common with was Robbie Nevil who had a pair of really great albums in the '80s, particularly his '88 release A Place Like This. However, Michael was more popular, and sadly Robbie's career was already trending down even as his albums got better. Curse the fickle public who can't appreciate a good thing.

The album kicks off with a fun one two punch with "Anything I Want" and "Don't Shut Me Out" that were apparently released as singles and cracked the top 40, but I'd never heard them. I found it kind of interesting that this far into the '80s Kevin was still throwing keyboard orchestra blasts into his music for emphasis that was so over, but it did work, I guess he was going in early to be retro. Kevin also seemed to have a penchant for throwing in the classic Michael Jackson "Whooo hooos" here and there. Don't misunderstand me, everyone was doing it in their own way, this was just more pronounced. Besides it worked. It isn't lost on me that when this came out he was only 23 years old (yeah, I looked it up) and this was a remarkably mature work. He was also a pretty frickin' talented kid.

For a debut effort, Chrysalis must have had a fair amount of faith in Kevin's vision for the album, as in
addition to arranging and producing the album, he performed all the vocals and instruments. If nothing else that's pretty impressive.

Heck this was pretty good, but for an album that had clear ambitions to be a power pop album it was a bit of an odd duck. I tip my hat to the early blending of some rap elements into a pop/rock song and the results were decent.

Like I said, I actually liked this ... more than I thought I would once I realized what I had on the turntable. For me there was just enough crunch and rock here to push my happy buttons. I can also hear why this didn't catch as well. If this had come out a few years earlier it would have likely been right in the sweet spot.

With the benefit of time served I don't have to worry about when it came out, I can listen to it and enjoy it just as it is. What it is, is good fun.

As far as major market releases Kevin would be a one and done, which was too bad as I'm sure there was more to be had from this talented musician. I suspect like so many other artists that are just a step out of the limelight he's out there still doing his thing and likely killing it.

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