Mr. Mister - Welcome to the Real World

Mr. Mister managed to catch lightning in a bottle on Welcome to the Real World. Although they had released a moderately successful album in 1984 that managed to crack the Billboard 200, most people, myself included, had no idea their '85 release wasn't their debut.

The album is best remembered for two great singles, "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie" that were pretty much saturating radio at the time. I'd always assumed the album was a monster in terms of sales, and it was. In Canada it sold over 300,000 copies. However, in the US market while it did go platinum I'd always assumed it was in the millions ... millions! Not that sales is any indication of anything other than popularity. Still, when I really liked something, I assumed everybody liked it too.

Now, let me qualify that assessment. I know I've said it before, but I loved making mix tapes for the car and I mined the big songs right away, and honestly didn't play the album as often as you'd think. Sure, the ballad "Run to Her" was a great slow dance. The rest of the album was decent. There were no obvious dogs in the litter but I gravitated to the shiny things. I honestly more or less slept on the rest of the record, but I still stand behind my assessment that I really liked the album.

I thought Mr. Mister were the shit. So much so that I recall reading an article in the paper where the music critic was writing about the current crop of artists and their likelihood of ever being in the Hall of Fame. I remember agreeing with him on certain acts, but when he wrote Mr. Mister's chances were slim to none I was actually offended. How dare he! They're huge, and "Broken Wings" is a masterpiece. They'll see one day and eat their words. So far they still haven't eaten anything, and apparently what I thought was the shit, is just shit to them. Bastards.

Of course within a month or two I had moved on to the next shiny thing.

So here I am in the basement, and recently I found not one but two really great copies of the album. I put one away for my little sister who loves the '80s. Playing the first side, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Sure, it's more than dated in places with the technology tropes that felt so bleeding edge at the time, and now just sound like cheese (you know I like the cheese). The songs were tight, polished and shiny. Yeah, one could also add generic as Richard Page's vocals, while fantastic, were also hard to distinguish from some other singers. Although, his opening notes on "Kyrie" are pure Page, so maybe he wasn't as generic as all that after all.

Speaking of the big songs, the second side opens with the three singles pulled from the album. While "Is It Love" was the weaker of the three, it's a solid song. "Kyrie" was a song that for a lot of us kids who grew up in the church thought it was cool that part of a prayer response was in a hit song. However, it really is "Broken Wings" with the bass groove and mid tempo swagger that is the centrepiece of the album. There are a handful of near perfect pop songs and this is one of them. If for nothing else this is why Mr. Mister is still remembered. They may never get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but people will remember them.

It's weird in that I never did go and pick up their debut as I had really liked this one. I sort of remember looking for it, but must not have tried that hard. I did wait for a follow up, but when the band dropped Go On ... in '87 there was little to no fanfare, and I didn't even know it existed until years later.

For a moment in time these guys welcomed me into their world and it was a happy place.