Nik Kershaw - Human Racing

Right off the bat, let's shine a light on the elephant in the room. "Wouldn't It Be Good" is probably the song he's best remembered for, and for good reason. The petulant, sulky song about the whiny kid who's self absorbed in his problems and has no idea how bad he's got it. Waugh, waugh, waugh. It's also an absolutely killer song, and it is still an absolutely killer song.

It was also the tip of the iceberg, but in order to understand the depth of his talent you'd have to immerse yourself, and most people didn't bother. Frankly, I can't claim to know that much either, I only had his first two albums back in the day. Those first two albums gave us a decent look at the bits floating on top, we were able to take a picture and then moved on.

Maybe instead of trying to craft some elaborate and disconnected allegory (is it an allegory?) about frozen water, I should have just pigeon holed Nik as a one hit wonder ... but that wouldn't have been accurate either, but then again maybe people didn't hear "The Riddle" so it could have worked. Too late now, I've committed myself to a course of action, and dagnabbit I'm going to see this through.

Regardless, it's not like Nik made it easy on the listener. I mean, the first cut "Dancing Girls" features a frenetic drum program that was so busy I'm sure the guys in Dead or Alive took notice and used it as inspiration for "You Spin Me Round," and from there it's not a stretch to imagine the girls in Bananarama all standing around pressing buttons to get the pattern for "Venus" just right ... of course I could just be full of shit.

Despite the odd start, all was forgiven when "Wouldn't It Be Good" came up next. This was why I bought the album. Besides the interplay between the rock elements that were interwoven with cool synth textures and real honest to goodness horns was wicked. The song was a mini masterclass in sonic deliciousness.

Then it was back to the more techno pop elements, and frankly, this was where the wheels fell off for me back in the day. I wanted that hybrid rock and this, this wasn't what I signed on for. Of course I'd play the album through a couple of times, but it would get filed, and only brought out if I was making a mix tape and wanted to pull off the one song I liked.

That was then.

I will admit that I am still partial to the big hit, but I've given this more than a cursory spin, and I know it seems like I'm trying too hard to like this and find something positive to say, but I'm not ... not really. Nik Kershaw was the real deal, and the songs here, even "Dancing Girls" and the odd backing vocals employed on "Gone to Pieces" and the vocal percussion Nik throws in here and there, are fun to listen to.

Nik was a pretty decent musician too, playing pretty much everything, and his guitar work was actually really tasty when he would step out and throw in a solo. I also really liked the balance between the programmed drums and a real kit ... depending on the song and what was required, Nik was smart enough to use the right stuff in the right places.

Listening to this again, it's funny how some songs jump out now that I'm surprised didn't make more of an impact back in '84. "Cloak and Dagger" is a killer song with a techno feel that has some great guitar work (so tasty) and is anchored by a killer bass part. This should have been on a mix tape. I suspect that I gave this a cursory play and quickly passed judgment and then filed it away.

It's too bad I didn't spend a little more time with this when I was younger. It's not like Nik Kershaw didn't resonate. When his follow up The Riddle dropped later that same year, I snapped it up. It was a solid album, and even though I didn't think much of the song "Wide Boy," I really liked the title track and a few others. More of that in another entry.

I know I said this was the tip of the iceberg (still flogging that dead horse), but honestly that was more hyperbole, but Nik really was the real deal. He may have been terrified, but check out his short set at Live Aid. He was just a kid and he killed it. Wouldn't it be good if that had served to really launch his career?

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

Billy Rankin - Growin' Up Too Fast

Growin' Up Too Fast was never widely released on CD (if at all), and it was one of the albums I really wanted to get back after a basement flood wiped out my vinyl collection in the '90s (when no one really gave a shit about records, and my insurance gave me a couple hundred bucks for an appraised $10,000 collection). Way back in 1984, my (dearly departed and greatly missed) buddy Dave let me borrow his cassette copy, which included a bonus track of "Get It On (Bang A Gong)." When I eventually bought the album, I didn't know it was a bonus track, or even what a bonus track was. If that sentence was hard to read, just go back and skim it. I'm sure you'll get the gist. I'd find out later Billy was an off-and-on-again member of Nazareth and wrote some absolutely killer songs for them. At the time, though, all I knew was this guy laid it out cold with the opening cut, "Baby Come Back," then proceeded to lay down one killer tune after another bef...

Garfield - Strange Streets

I'd seen this before in the bin, but kept flipping through the stacks. I'd see it a few more times, each time stopping to look at it a little more. There was something kind of cool about the cover where the stylized Celtic knot had the dotted yellow line - it was a strange street for sure. I pulled the record out of the jacket and I was struck by the centre image. There was the familiar Mercury label, the same one I'd seen a thousand times on BTO's Head On album. Well, I'd bought things based on odd associations before - like when I had to buy anything that Solid Rock Records released (this was generally a good thing) - so who knows, maybe this was a hidden gem. There weren't any real scratches or rash, just a lot of dirt and dust. It seemed to clean up okay, but we'll see how it goes. The album opens with the title track, and this wasn't straight-ahead pop or rock. It was leaning toward the progressive, but with a pop bent. Oddly enough, the vocals rem...

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