Let's see where this goes.
I had somewhat boldly proclaimed that "Wouldn't It Be Good" was merely the tip of the iceberg when considering the depths of his talents. A bit of hyperbole, but since there are no take backs, only retractions, I'll stand by the comment, and Nik was without question as ambitious as he was talented. It also got me thinking about his third album, Radio Musicola, an album I found a few months ago that was now buried in a pile in the basement.
While on balance I liked his first two albums, I can also quite freely admit that they were uneven for me, but when he was good it more than made up for it. For a long time I just thought of him as a guy who had a few (yes, a few) really cool songs back in the early '80s and then more or less faded into obscurity.
I've played Radio Musicola through a couple of times, and I've tried to imagine listening with my 23 year old ears - I'm quite sure the album would not have seen the light of day again after what would no doubt have been a cursory listen. However, I've added another four decades to the tally, and I have to say that even now the first couple of times through were as challenging as they were entertaining, but there was something in a few tracks that warranted another spin.
I should not have to work this hard to find a silver lining, but there's something compelling about how Nik writes, and he's ambitious, and his arrangements are complex. Dang, if you'll allow me to push this a little further I'd go so far as to call his music progressive in nature. There is often a reward if you give things a little room to open up.
Musically, the couple of years separating The Riddle from Radio Musicola only served to highlight the changes Nik was experimenting with sonically. It may have only been two years since his previous record but in pop years it was an eternity. In hamster years it was a lifetime.
When Radio Musicola came out there were a lot of familiar elements that sounded like Nik Kershaw, but it was very different as well. For those hoping (me, I was hoping) for songs in the vein of "Don Quixote," "The Riddle" or his breakout "Wouldn't It Be Good," the album seemed to lean into the musical vein he exposed on "Wide Boy," which was an interesting song but not one I was ever particularly enamoured with. Song after song seemed to be heading in a direction that didn't particularly appeal to me. On his first two records producer Peter Collins could reign him in, this time out Nik was producing himself.
I'm not sure Nik was entirely certain of what he wanted to accomplish musically on Radio Musicola. He had access to a lot of cool toys and great musicians, but I'm not convinced he had a vision for where he wanted to take his alchemic blend of techno-enhanced R&B. So he took his sophisticated mid-tempo, progressive-leaning pop and leaned into the technology, seeing what he could do with it. It was still musical, and certainly ambitious - and I will go up on a hill and say that young Mister Kershaw had an identifiable sound, something many artists never attain.
With all of the computers on the record, yes the credits said computers ... Nik was also an incredible guitar player, who didn't cut loose enough on the record, which to me was a shame.
Another ingredient that was present on most of the songs was Wix (Paul Wickens) on keyboards. What really stood out amongst all the technology were the horns - real honest to goodness horns that were interspersed with the keyboards, it's a wonderful marriage.
The whole package was connected. Someone spent a lot of time putting this together. The back cover had comic book ads that were all interwoven with the songs, and it was fun having the lyric sheet and album cover in hand trying to connect the dots as the songs played. I hate to say it, but that was more fun than the music at times.
Radio Musicola is in many ways an excellent record, all of the songs are meticulously crafted and are fitted together into a musical tapestry that is neatly broken into two sides. Oh, don't roll your eyes at me. I suspect this was due more to the fact that you have to turn the bloody thing over than any sort of intelligent design on Nik's part.
If you try hard enough you can find patterns in anything, whether they were intentional or not. It's not like Nik suddenly did a musical 180, the songs here are familiar. It's just that people like me are drawn like moths to a flame to the shiny things, and the first few times through the record there were glimmers and flashes, but when they were done I couldn't remember which song perked my ears up.
"Nobody Knows" was one of the first songs to pop, and reading up on the record it was released as a single, but didn't catch on. Too bad, it's really very good - but it also took more than a couple of times through for it to sink in. Another single that grew on me was the oddly structured "James Cagney" that shouldn't have worked, but does. The references to James Cagney, Charlie Chan and Valentino were already bordering on obscure when this came out ...
However, if there's a song here that has emerged as the centrepiece, it's the album's closer, "Violet to Blue." This is a mid-tempo song that never seems to vary but somehow just creates tension. Simon Phillips plays drums on this one, and the song features not one, but two bass players as well as The London Community Gospel Choir. It's an amazing song.
Now, I will also admit that at this point I am probably not a reliable witness. Yes, those songs are good, they're the best songs on the record for me ... but being the best songs on an album I had to listen to repeatedly to give the songs room to bloom may not be the high praise it appears to be.
Radio Musicola is still, for all that, a strangely rewarding experience, and I found out it was missing a core piece.
"When a Heart Beats" was the first single released - and while it didn't do as well as expected, it is probably the most accessible song on the record, except it isn't on the record - it's on the CD and cassette release. I know the vinyl release clocks in close to 45 minutes, and honestly trying to accommodate almost 50 minutes wasn't done that often, so I can see why a song was left off. I suspect back in '86 the idea was to give the CD and cassette formats an edge, and if the single caught on people would lean toward the newer CD format. Dang. If only they'd dropped "L.A.B.A.T.Y.D." or "Don't Let Me Out of My Cage," but then again, if the goal was to drive CD sales those weren't drawing cards.
You play the hand you're dealt and my nine song version of Radio Musicola is what I have, and frankly I can stream the album any time I want ... but immersing myself one side at a time has been really rewarding. The album is still an odd assortment of songs that at times never really lift from the grooves, but there was something about them that kept me engaged enough to play it again, and again. If I hadn't I'd have missed out on some really good songs.
It would be three years before MCA would release The Works in 1989, it would be the last album he'd record for the label. If you're wondering, I had no idea that album existed either.
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