Guess Who's Back On Top?: This Week's Pick: Love Moves

I'm going to write about one of my favourite Kim Wilde albums this week. Even though it was released in 1990. The decade I can not stand!! I've always hated the 90s because everybody who made their debut in the 80s went indie, grunge or r&b and tried to ignore what they've done in the 80s. Suddenly everybody started to feel embarrassed about the 80s, what they've done, how they looked and what they sang and tried to create a new image to fit in with the new trend so they could make people forget about the 80s. Madonna pushed herself and chose the r&b path with Erotica & Bedtime Stories, Kylie went indie and mocked her PWL days with Impossible Princess, A-ha went rock with East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon, Bananarama got more daring but lost their soul with Pop Life. The Human League tried new sounds with Romantic?. There were also new acts who got big with their ''fresh'' sounds which were the ''trendsetters'' of the music scene. None of my favourite acts could maintain their success through the whole decade. And arguably, one of them was Kim Wilde. Since the beginning of the the 80s, she's had a successful yet on and off career. She was cool, she was in her twenties and she was the most popular female singer in the UK and rest of Europe. After releasing Close in 1988 she's reached the top of her career. Every single she released from the album was a hit. She's toured with Michael Jackson as his opening act around Europe and had two busy years. After the tour was over, she's got back in the studio for her seventh album in late 1989. After Close taking people by the storm, she's rised the stakes. Everybody was waiting something huge, something similar to Close but stronger and bigger. Being close to 30, Kim was starting to see things differently. Especially after finishing her relationship with the lead singer of Johhny Hates Jazz; Calvin Hayes. Being so popular and having not much time to herself because of the tour pushed Kim to loneliness and exhaustion.

When all that came together, Kim lost the sight while she was recording the album 7 in their studio. She was close to stop everything and cancel the whole project while she was halfway. Learning from her experiences; Kim had a different point of view to life now and she's reflected it to her lyrics perfectly. All the tracks were composed by Kim herself and her brother Ricky Wilde which makes the lyrics very personal. That's why the album was called Love Moves. When asked about the reason why the album was called Love Moves, Kim said ''Because it's true. Love makes you do even bigger things'' in one of her interviews.

Almost just a month before the release of Love Moves, Kim Wilde released It's Here as the first single of the album on 26th March 1990. It was about Kim Wilde looking at things differently and finally seeing what was there all the time. We still don't know what's it and where it is though. The single wasn't successfull as her previous releases from Close.

Finally, Love Moves was released on the 1st of May 1990. The songs were personal, strong and confident. The album's had a Middle Of The Road feel like her previous albums. The album saw Wilde talking about her having a new point of view, how she feels about love, enviroment problems and the plastic life of Hollywood celebrities.

There are many underrated songs in the album as usual. Love (Send Him Back To Me) is certainly one of them. I used to despise the song because of it's sound and also because it wasn't like any traditional Kim Wilde song. It was far away from being a new wave song. But the more I listened to it, the more I loved it. It's one of the strongest songs on the album. Sounding similar to Paula Abdul's Straight Up, Love was written about Kim begging love to have his lover back. Even though it sounds very 90s, I love Love (Send Him Back To Me) a lot. It could easily top the charts with a good video. The third track Storm In Our Hearts was a dark love song with some jazz elements. It was also a stand out track with it's strong and deep lyrics. World In Perfect Harmony and Who's To Blame? were written about what's happening to people, what are they doing with our world and how we can lose our future with our ways. World In Perfect Harmony sees Kim' seeking for a world in peace and harmony while she questions what are we doing to our world in Who's To Blame. Someday is one of two ballads of the album along with I Can't Say Goodbye. The sixth song on the album; Time was about Kim Wilde falling in love. The strongest song on the album with a lovely video, Time failed to be in top 40 in the UK charts and makes it her most underrated single. With perfectly produced drums and synths; Time sounds so much like a Stock Aitken Waterman song. Especially like Kylie's Better The Devil You Know which makes Time my most favourite song on Love Moves.
After the concerning track Who's To Blame?, comes Can't Get Enough (Of Your Love) which has some rock and Hi Nrg elements. With being almost a classic Kim Wilde song, Can't Get Enough is a fan favourite. The lyrics are a bit personal as usual. On the 9th track In Hollywood, we hear the names of some celebrities like Mike Tyson, Donald Trump (unfortunately) and her then wife Ivana (what a nightmare!). The last song on the album is I Can't Say Goodbye which is another love ballad.

Although the songs were promising the album couldn't maintain the success of Close. It was one of her lowest selling albums in the UK. Although reaching top 10 in the Scandinavian countries,it peaked at #126 in Australia. Being disappoint of the failure, ''I think the album itself still stands, it was a very strong album, and it was very disapppointing that it didn't do well. But it didn't really come too much as a big surprise, because my career before then had always been very up and down. So it wasn't a complete shock, but it was very disappointing.'' said Kim Wilde. I don't know if Kim Wilde will ever read this but I'll give it a shot. Love Moves was a brilliant and eclectic album. Your true fans appreciate the songs and the obvious effort you've put into them. So please forgive the album and perform it's songs on your future tours!

Love Moves was released on LP, Cd and cassette. The UK LP has the title in the middle while the German pressing has it on the top right corner. There's not a reissue of Love Moves unlike her previous albums but I hope we get it one day with some unreleased tracks, remixes and instrumentals.

TRACKLIST:

1. It's Here
2. Love (Send Him Back To Me)
3. Storm In Our Hearts
4. World In Perfect Harmony
5. Someday
6. Time
7. Who's To Blame?
8. Can't Get Enough (Of Your Love)
9. In Hollywood
10. I Can't Say Goodbye

CHARTS:

Germany: 24
Netherlands: 35 (7 weeks)
Sweden: 10 (6 weeks)
United Kingdom: 37 (3 weeks)