Old Enough to Forget

The Riddle dropped in the fall of 1984 several months after his debut Human Racing was released. 1984 was a good year for Mister Kershaw, although the The Riddle not as successful as his debut, it was the album I preferred. I likely picked this up a couple of years after it came out as I still think of this as being an album that I was listening to in 1986 or 1987. Which means I found it on sale and took a chance on it. Sounds about right. Listening to this now, with the benefit of hindsight and perspective that I didn't have at the time. I'm struck by the change in tact between his debut and the what he was writing and recording for his follow up. Right out of the gate "Don Quixote" was an odd blend of techno with elements of funk. A little bit like what Level 42 was doing as well - oddly enough Mark King would guest on the closing track on side one, "Easy." At the time I wasn't a big fan of Level 42, although Mark's talent as a player cannot be ...

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 you have 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 have his first two albums. 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 accurat...