It's an odd thing, how you can just love someone's music, but then they release an album that just doesn't hit the spot for you. You try, since it's an artiste you like --- you
want to enjoy it, but somehow it just isn't happening. Finally, you're forced to admit that the very fact that it's an album by X is after all
not enough on its own for you to like it, and you reluctantly tell yourself it's a bump, an aberration hopefully, but this one is getting past you, and there seems no way you're ever going to like it.
Maybe at some point it'll get a shot at the “Last Chance Saloon”, but for now you hate it. Well, hate is a very strong word, of course, and there are few albums in my collection --- that I've listened to --- that I could truly say I hate. But there is certainly more than one artiste whose music I collect who has released what I consider to be, shall we say, something below par, and this is what this section will concentrate on. Well, partly.
It's called “Love/Hate”, so what I'll be doing is featuring two albums by the same artiste, one of which I love (or really like) and one of which I hate, although again as I say hate is probably too strong a word. Let's say, one I like a lot less, perhaps the one I like least of the artiste's catalogue, or at any rate what I have heard of them to date.
I just find it interesting that sometimes you can love an artiste but they can release an album you really don't like. It just proves that sometimes, no matter how hard you try to like something --- for the right or the wrong reasons --- you just can't make the leap, and you're left having to admit there's, to quote Savatage, a complaint in the system. An otherwise perfectly-oiled machine that runs like clockwork has one defective part. It doesn't stop the machine working, but it interferes slightly with its operation.
Mike + the Mechanics --- Mike + The Mechanics --- 1985 (WEA)
The funny thing about this album is that I bought it, not because it featured Mike Rutherford from Genesis (although it does), in fact when I purchased the album I was unaware it had any Genesis connections at all, although had I known it would have only strengthened my resolve to buy it. I decided to get the album on the strength of the first song I heard from it (on the radio, I think), which was in fact the opener, “Silent running”.
I really loved this album. Yes, there are weak tracks on it, though they number very few, and there are no terrible tracks at all. But more than that, there are some absolute gems there. Conceived, as mentioned above, as a side project for Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford (whose solo album “Acting very strange” I had already heard and liked), The Mechanics consisted of vocalists Paul Young (no, not
that one!) and Paul Carrack, Drummer Peter Van Hooke and keyboards man Adrian Lee, with Rutherford of course taking all guitar and bass duties. In addition to this, they operated something of an “Alan Parsons” setup vocally, with two other singers taking the mike (sorry!) for two of the songs, while Young and Carrack alternated.
As I said, the album opens strongly, on the powerful and dramatic “Silent running (on dangerous ground)”, which was in fact from the soundtrack to the film “On dangerous ground”. It has a very Genesis-like intro, with humming synth and swirling keys, and then picks up on a really nice beat, until Carrack takes up the vocal, singing a song that warns of nuclear holocaust about to occur. It's mid-paced, very keyboard-driven, which is perhaps unusual for a project created by a guitarist, but it works very well. Carrack's vocals are clear and distinct, and he has a powerful voice which really suits the song. Of course, there is the obligatory and expected guitar solo from Rutherford in the song: no point being the focus of the project if you can't make your presence felt!
The opener is in fact the longest track on the album, just over six minutes, with the rest of the nine songs all coming in around the four minute or less mark, with one or two going a few seconds over that. “Silent running” ends sharply, just as you think it will probably fade, and next up is one of their big hit singles, “All I need is a miracle”. Much poppier, more commercially accessible than its predecessor, it was made for the charts, and although both songs did very well when released, initially it would be “Miracle” for which Mike + the Mechanics would be remembered. Until of course, they had bigger hits.
It starts off again very Genesis-y, with lush keyboard and a sort of called-out/echoey vocal, then settles into a poppy, boppy groove, with Paul Young taking over on vocals. I don't personally feel that it's as strong a track as “Silent running”, but it's a good followup and the quality doesn't dip for “Par avion”, in fact it ups the ante quite a bit, with a truly beautiful ballad, luxurious keys and a breathy vocal from session man John Kirby. Everything about this is understated: the melody, the percussion, the singing, all gives the impression of a very rare and delicate jewel being carried on a velvet cushion, from the chirping birds and crickets on the intro to the almost Phil Collins-like percussion, the keyboard sweeps, the flutelike passage right at the end. Fragile and lovely.
Things ramp up considerably then for “Hanging by a thread”, which has Young again behind the microphone. It's probably the heaviest song on the album, with electronica-like keyboard samples, thumping, insistent drums and grinding guitar, not to mention a very angry and determined vocal. Nice synth break in the middle, very Depeche Mode or Human League. Then it speeds up as it heads towards the ending of the song, finishing abruptly, which this time works well.
“I get the feeling” goes all jazzy and carribean, very singalong/clapalong, with good brass from Ray Beavis and John Earle, but it's a little too “Sussudio” for my tastes. “Take the reins” picks the speed and power up again, a fast, heads-down, urgent song, the first really guitar-led song on the album. Another beautiful ballad follows, with the vocals this time taken by Gene Stashuck, "You are the one" is built on a simple piano melody with keyboards coming in to flesh out the sound, and followed by another ballad, this time a song originally written by Genesis and intended to be on their self-titled album. As it didn't make the cut, Mike Rutherford sought permission from Tony Banks and Phil Collins to use "A call to arms" on his album, which they agreed to.
It's a great song. Powerful, dramatic, effective and emotional, with Carrack back on vocals and doing a fine, fine job. Opening with a gush of powerful piano and keyboards, it rides along on a punchy melody, with drums very reminscent indeed of those used on the opener to Genesis' “Genesis” album, “Mama”. In some ways, it's kind of a continuation of the theme explored in “Silent running”, with a very singalong chorus and a great hook. Would have been a great closer, but there's one more track to go. Sadly, after the majesty of “A call to arms”, closer “Taken in” comes across very much as tacked-on, a filler track that should really not have been included, or at least should not have been the last track on the album. As I point out in my “Happy endings” section, it's the last track on an album you're always left humming, and I'd much rather be humming “A call to arms” than “Taken in”, which is I feel very lightweight and inconsequential.
A weak ending then, but a great album overall, which is why I really like it, and being impressed as I was with the debut, I went on to buy the next two albums, but as I shall relate below, there came a time when I knew it was no longer any use to explore this avenue.
TRACKLISTING
1. Silent running (on dangerous ground)
2. All I need is a miracle
3. Par avion
4. Hanging by a thread
5. I get the feeling
6. Take the reins
7. You are the one
8. A call to arms
9. Taken in
As I say, hate is a very strong word, and I don't hate this album, but it was the end of the road for me as far as this band was concerned. I loved the debut, and the second, but after I heard this one I no longer wished to buy Mike + The Mechanics albums, and from what I've heard of them since, I have never regretted that decision. They seem to have gone more down the commercial pop route as the years and albums have gone by, and the rock has been to a large extent, as far as I can see, jettisoned.
Word of mouth --- Mike + The Mechanics --- 1991 (Virgin)
Maybe I was expecting too much. I mean, the debut, detailed above, had blown me pretty much away, and the followup, “The living years”, was as good if not better, and of course yielded a huge hit single in the title track, so I was ready for more. I was however not ready for what I got, which was a huge disappointment, disillusion and the sinking feeling that this band were slipping away from the music I had enjoyed listening to them make.
It starts off well enough, with a nice guitar intro, but this is soon superceded by poppy keyboards, and the opener “Get up” shows itself to be a very pop/chart song, with little to recommend it to any rock fan. This could, really, be a song by any sub-par pop band. Title track helps restore my faith, with its thumping drums, its live feel and its great chorus, and its quite political lyric:
”Look out for those who/ Still want to hang on/ Look out for those who/ Live in the past/ Get out and listen/ To the whisper/ Cos the times are changing fast.” Right on. Great angry guitar, not so much of the keys on this one. Perhaps we'll be okay?
In fairness, ballad “A time and place” is not at all bad, though it does suffer from the curse of the mid-eighties ballad, that overpreponderance of digital piano, which tended to make nearly all ballads sound similar. Nicely sung though. Does have a very Genesis feel to it, not surprising as Rutherford was at the time also participating in recording sessions for their “We can't dance” album, which would be in fact their last with longtime frontman Phil Collins. This time out, however, there were no session vocalists, and Paul Carrack and Paul Young again shared the singing.
Sadly though, this is about the last decent track on the album, bar the closer. Perhaps it's the collaboration of BA Robertson on most of the tracks with Rutherford that's to blame for the serious dip in quality in the songwriting, but then again, some of the really weak songs had no input for him, like the opener and “The way you look at me”, so maybe I'm doing him an injustice. I was never that fond of Robertson's music, though that shouldn't really be a factor, should it? Nevertheless, the inescapable conclusion is that the rest of this album is largely filler, though “Yesterday, today and tomorrow” is a decent rocker, but even that suffers from some pretty poor lyrical content, just not up to the standard I had come to expect from these guys.
“The way you look at me” is pure pop. It's not a bad song,
per se, but it's very very lightweight, very charty, very throwaway, and not much better is “Everybody gets a second chance”, another poppy example, with a somewhat annoying beat to it, and although “Stop baby” is a nice little ballad with a nice atmosphere to it, “My crime of passion” just doesn't do it for me. It's a little rocky, but only a little, and I just see the slide into pop music getting steeper and steeper here.
The album does finish well. “Let's pretend it didn't happen” (advice for the disillusioned Mike + The Mechanics fans?) is a good harkback to the quality of the sort of songs that characterised the first two albums, with good keyboards and a very hooky melody, a lot of drama and some really effective guitar, while closer “Before (the next heartache falls)” is a powerful semi-ballad that really grabs at you and establishes itself as a worthy closer, almost
too good for this album.
As I say, the album isn't crap, it's not even that bad. It's just that in comparison to the first two it falls very far short of what I was expecting, with a lot of filler and below-standard songs, and it really coloured my attitude towards Mike + The Mechanics, and as I mentioned my premonitions of dread were well-founded, considering the direction the band took. A real pity, as I thought they could have done so much better, but then, I suppose for a side project for one of the most famous and accomplished rock guitarists in the world, it was a good run.
TRACKLISTING
1. Get up
2. Word of mouth
3. A time and place
4. Yesterday, today and tomorrow
5. The way you look at me
6. Everybody gets a second chance
7. Stop baby
8. My crime of passion
9. Let's pretend it didn't happen
10. Before (the next heartache falls)
But for me, this was where the romance ended, and we parted amicably. It started so well, but ended so badly. We see each other from time to time, but it's never going to be like it was. You can't go back. And when you've been burned once, you're not too eager to stick your hand back into the fire again.