Old Enough to Forget

Chalk Circle - As The Crow Flies (1989) Chalk Circle is probably best known for their single "April Fool" that came out in 1986. I always paired it in my head with Eight Seconds "Kiss You When It's Dangerous, I'm not sure why, but I did. They were both infectious songs, and I was going to buy the albums ... spoiler ... I never did get them. Over time I'd forget the songs, but I always remembered the bands. Not that long ago I found Almacantar by Eight Seconds, but Chalk Circle would elude me for a long time.  Then during the great sale of '23 when my favourite, and now closed, record store decided to sell everything in the store for a toonie, I found a pristine copy of As The Crow Flies . For you kids who weren't there, by '89 (earlier, but whatever) CDs were the shit, and vinyl was dead ... the fact this was still pressed was in some respects an anomaly. Not that I'm complaining. But for those who go on about the warmth of vinyl you should ...

By 1986, The Fixx had been on a creative run that would be the envy of a lot of bands. Like a lot of people, I jumped on the bandwagon when the band released what is arguably their most well-known album, Reach the Beach . This was just a starting point, and in short order I had gone and picked up their debut, and then kept up with the band through 1991's Ink . The best song the band ever did was the long version of "Deeper and Deeper," and while it was available on the Streets of Fire soundtrack, it was a much shorter and far less satisfying version. It should have been on Phantoms in its entirety - sigh. By the time Walkabout came out, the musical landscape was all over the place. It truly was the best of times; the sheer number of classic songs and albums from this year is sort of mind-boggling. It's against this backdrop that The Fixx joined the fray. I remember the first time I heard "Secret Separation" and was totally blown away. It was, and still is, ...