Real Life - The Flame

Right out of the gate, "No Shame" opens with every kitschy keyboard patch that was cutting edge in 1985, and the song is propelled by a frenetic right hand playing bass on a synth. The vocals were smack dab in the middle of the sweet spot of new romantic and techno. I'm trying to find the words to give a sense, but I suppose I should have just said it was an '80s vocal. The song is busy, really busy. So this is how the band followed up the '83 debut.

The core band was intact from the debut, which was nice to see. I really liked a couple of songs from Heartland, but for whatever reason, when Real Life released The Flame, there was no fire and no smoke. I don't think I ever saw the record while flipping through the bins. Although I do remember seeing a collection of best-of-the-year lists culling what they thought were their top picks of 1985. There were a lot of mentions of Kate Bush, Dire Straits, and R.E.M., and there was one brave critic calling out Real Life's The Flame, an album pretty much no one heard.

Why this stuck with me, who knows.

I was intrigued, but not enough to go and get the record ... and then the years came and went, and they stacked up like cord wood behind a shed. When I finally found a copy of the record, the pile was 41 years deep.

Now I should say right off that I'm jotting down my jibber jabber as I play the record for the first time. Which isn't ideal as my attention is divided, but it also helps when something cool happens in a song. The little emotion sensor gets a ping and suddenly the song has my full attention. It's sort of the equivalent of walking down a sidewalk and suddenly you hear, "Hi, you are currently being recorded." I tend to make a face and flip the bird in the direction of the camera.

So far the album was okay, and there were a few moments where I perked up, but only for a moment. Having said that, I've just turned the album over and "The Flame" is pretty engaging.

The album so far hasn't really given me much to draw my attention. Although as I write this, I find myself listening, really listening, to "The Legend," which is an interesting mid-tempo rocker. The textures are really cool, and there are some Cure vibes going on. The guitar solo is pure, unadulterated '80s shredded cheese. The album has my attention now.

Interesting, either the album got better or I wasn't really paying attention. Then again, my emotion sensor is working. It's not like the songs are suddenly playlist-worthy. I'm trying to grow with the times, and people just don't make mixtapes anymore.

It'll be interesting to hear how this opens up with subsequent plays. The album is almost over, "Let's Fall in Love" just finished, and I found myself thinking about Alphaville and Spandau Ballet, which was strange because I only know them from their hits.

The album closes very differently from how it started. "No Shame" was an absolute wall of cacophonous sounds and textures and was almost too much to process. "Cathedral" is almost grandiose in structure. If I wasn't thinking about Alphaville before, I was now. The song feels like a kissing cousin to "Forever Young," except that it's more brooding. The song clocks in at four and a half minutes but seems to be over too soon.

The debut had "Send Me an Angel," which was a spectacular song. Those thinking The Flame would be more of the same were going to be disappointed. The band may not have delivered the big single, but this was an interesting album. The second side is where things started to open up, and I suspect the more I play this, the better it will sound. The album didn't catch fire the first time through, but there was smoke, and eventually, where there's smoke, there's fire.