Today's Pick: Select - Kim Wilde

Now I'll really struggle to describe my feelings for this masterpiece. Select is the album that made me love new-wave and shaped my taste in music. Analog synths, raw and natural vocals, lyrics with stroies to tell, Kim with her perfect hair style, a simple artwork that goes perfect with it's title... Words fail me to praise this perfection! I put this on my turntable every time I hear today's shitty music on the radio just to keep me going.


After making a debut with her self titled album and taking the UK, Europe and US by storm in 1981; Kim didn't lose any time to record her second album. His father Marty Wilde and brother Ricky Wilde wrote all the lyrics. Using more synthesizers and less guitars than the first album; Select is more agressive than her debut album. From air disasters to police brutality, apparent suicide, the nervous situation UK was in then and war circumstances Select lyrically has a darker side which reflects Marty and Rick's dark side. With all those coming together, Select is more of a new-wave and synth-pop album than her previous pop-rock album by including more snyths and electronic elements.


On the cover we see Kim Wilde with her breath taking beauty. Her signature hairdo with almost no make up makes the album's artwork very iconic. Every single detail from her pose to hair, from the graphics to the font reflects the 80s perfectly. It's one of the most famous album covers of the 80s and also one of my most favourites hence it's on the header of my blog with Miss Minogue. On the front of the cover, Kim stands before a white background and on the back, we see her before the black background. I think they tried to describe the feel of the album. Mostly dark and sometimes bright, like her vocals, Sometimes agressive and confident but sometimes fragile and blue; hence the title is Select.


Unlike the three minute songs produced to be played on the radio, the songs on the Select have good bridges, instrumental breaks and long endings. The songs give us all a sense of resolution. They just don't start and finish in 2 minutes and 45 seconds.


TRACKLIST:  

1. Ego
2. Words Fell Down
3. Action City
4. View From A Bridge
5. Just A Feeling
6. Chaos At The Airport
7. Take Me Tonight
8. Can You Come Over
9. Wendy Sadd
10. Cambodia - Reprise


The album makes an energetic start with Ego. Containing electronic synths and a fast rhythm, Ego is about someone that Marty Wilde knows. It's a perfect example of 80s new wave - electronic music. On the second track, Words Fell Down; we see Kim Wilde with her confident vocals. It's a classic pop song in it's stand-out ways.
Action City was written during UK going through social unrest and it reflects the unsafe position Marty Wilde feels. The sythns and electric guitars literally supports the title and lyrics of the song. It's one of the strongest and definitive tracks of the album with it's sound.
The fourth track, one of the fan favourites, View From A Bridge is one of the darkest songs of the album with it's lyrics about a girl commiting a suicide and jumping off a bridge. The almost sad intro of the song leaves itself to a moving and swinging kick accompanied by Kim's sometimes insane and affective vocals. I can feel the insanity when Kim shouts ''But then a voice said jump! And I just let go.'' Such a perfect track before ending the first half of the album with a stunning love song.
The last song on the Side A; Just A Feeling is my all time favourite Kim Wilde song. The chanting beginning of the song joined by analogue synths and drums makes a perfect start for this masterpiece. When I read what Marty Wilde said about the song I was highly disappointed. ''This is just a simple love song and the only line that I really love in the song is that line that says "I always looked on the touch of your love as a warm stream running over me". Even the critics called the song ''Stunning'' while the album was suffering from bad and unjust reviews. The lead synth pads, basses and Kim Wilde's fragile vocals just gets me every time I listen to the song. The electric guitar solo and the fascinating outro that lasts more than a minute are my favourite parts. I turn up the volume every time the outro comes and it just hypnotizes me. There's just no other perfect way to end a song. I get the chills every time the captivating synths kick in suddenly while Kim silently chants. It just reflects the feeling the song wants to give in a perfect way.  Sadly, we don't get such a song today.
The second half of the album begins with Chaos At The Airport. It has it's definive electric guitar throughout the song which fits with the feel of the song. It gets you allerted and nervous in a good way. The lyrics are about the air disasters and the fear of flying which makes the song very unique and personal. Like most of Kim Wilde songs, Chaos At The Airport is very underrated and unappreciated.
Take Me Tonight is the second track on the Side B. Having an intro with synths. The song has a funny story. After finishing his gig, Marty Wilde goes to a bar in the disco and silently watched everybody and thinks about what plans are they having for that night. Then he writes this song imagining what Kim Wilde would think and say if she was one of the people in that crowd.
Can You Come over is the most rock oriented song in the album and my least favourite song on the album. This song has a funny story too. The vocals were recorded in Kim's bedroom, in her house. Because they were behind the recordings of the album. So they needed a RAK MOBILE which was a long lorry, converted to a recording studio. They extended the cables to Kim's room and recorded the song there. Maybe this was the reason why Can You Come Over sounds slightly different than the rest of the songs that are on the album.
The second last song on the album, Wendy Sadd is one of the best songs Kim has ever done in her career. It's about police brutality that takes place in the US (how surprising!!). It was written by Marty and Ricky Wilde like the rest of the songs. The song has one of my most favourite lines: ''Lost in the night, somebody said go easy on the girl. You'll never get a confession if you treat her that way''. Wendy Sadd is a real person that Marty met at Top Of The Pops but she's not related to the story of the song. Her name was used because Marty loved the name and wanted to write a song about it. Wendy Sadd is another dark song that leaves the listener nervous. And the nervousness reaches it's climax at the end of the song when Kim shouts ''Wendy Sadd'' and leaves the listeners with one of the most tense ending a song could ever have which makes me fall in love with the song. It gets you so nervous it's almost like you're stressed and filled with anxiety. It's just pure perfection.
We close the album with Cambodia which is the perfect example for a new wave song. It was released months before the release of Select as a lead single. The lyrics are about an airforce wife who was Thailand based and how the ugly face of the war changed her husband. The storyteller lyrics were supported by a sad music filled with synths and sound effects. Marty says he's wrote the song while thinking about an American pilot flying in a F-4 Phantom II and getting shot down by an air missile. The song includes helicopter noises as well. It's another masterpiece that satisfies the listeners both with it's music and lyrics. The song ends with Kim Wilde chants ''She won't see his face again'' magically while the album comes to an end with the Reprise of Cambodia kicks in a little after Kim Wilde finishes her lines and leaves the listeners. Beginning with on and off sytnhs repeating itself, the drums kick in fastly and it goes on with Kim sadly chanting to reflect the whole air of the album. The whole Reprise built on fast drums with synths which makes it electronic yet so symphonic. It's just the best way to finish an album and to make it a masterpiece.


CHARTS: 

Sadly Select couldn't make the impact that Kim's debut album did. But that couldn't prevent it to be a fan favourite album. Critics only favoured Cambodia, Just A Feeling and View From A Bridge and called the rest of the album ''dull''. Just unbelievable!

Australia: 7
Austria: 4
Belgium: 4
Denmark: 1
France: 1
Germany: 2 (26 weeks)
Ireland: 15 (8 weeks)
Netherlands: 2 (12 weeks)
Norway: 3
South Africa: 2
Sweden: 1 (22 weeks)
Switzerland: 1 (11 weeks)
United Kingdom: 12 (12 weeks)

Select Germany LP (1C 064-64 787) 

Back Cover

Inner Sleeve Front

Inner Sleeve Back

Side A 

Side B

Thanks so much to Wilde Life for the information and facts. Visit www.wilde-life.com for further information about the album and Kim Wilde. 

This Week's Pick: Love Moves - Kim Wilde

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)

Love Moves German LP (2292 -57225-1)

Love Moves German LP Back

Love Moves German LP Inner Sleeve Front

Love Moves German LP Inner Sleeve Back

Love Moves German LP Side A

Love Moves German LP Side B

This Week's B-Side: Virtual World - Kim Wilde

Written by Ricky and Kim Wilde in 1989 or 1990, Virtual World was released as a B-side to the lead single It's Here which was taken from the 1990 album Love Moves. Then it was given as a B-Side again when she released Can't Get Enough (Of Your Love) as a single. The song is talks about the future and what the world will become. In a way all the things she's mentioned in the song are made possible nowadays. Virtual World also has an extended version which was released on the 12'' single and cd single.

Unlike her formerly known works, Virtual World has a dance-pop and synthpop sound. And the music goes very well with the lyrics. The keyboards are reminding me In Hollywood. I think they were recorded around the same time. And of course, like all her songs, Virtual World left very underrated and unpopular. I hope she performs it live one day.

It's Here German 7'' (2292-57275-7 LA)

It's Here German 7'' Back

It's Here German 7'' Side A 

It's Here German 7'' Side B

My Very First Pick: Close - Kim Wilde

ABOUT CLOSE

Close was released by Kim Wilde on the 1st of June 1988 as her sixth studio album. Produced by her brother Ricky Wilde & Tony Swain the album was her most well ballanced album with pop, ballad and rock sounds. The songs were concentrated on love (Hey Mr. Heartache, Four Letter Word, Love In The Natural Way, Love's A No, Lucky Guy), what's going on around the world (Stone, European Soul) and her nephew coming into her life (You Came). Promoting the album, its singles and videos as being an opening act on Michael Jackson's Bad World Tour, Close sold over 2 million copies worldwide, making it her best-selling album of her entire career. Many critics praised the album with its successful producing while some critics finding the album sounding similar to Bananarama's famous album WOW which was produced by the well known producers Stock, Aitken & Waterman. Other than that critics gave the album such favorable reviews with the success of the album and its singles.

TRACKLIST: 

1) Hey Mr. Heartache

2) You Came

3) Four Letter Word

4) Love In The Natural Way

5) Love's A No

6) Never Trust A Stranger

7) You'll Be The One Who'll Lose

8) European Soul

9) Stone

10) Lucky Guy

SINGLES

1) Hey Mr. Heartache, released on 18th of April 1988 in the UK & Europe; Heartache featured the vocals of Junior Giscombe whom worked with Kim on her previous album Another Step. Heartache wasn't a big hit in her native country, debuting at #31 although it was successful in Norway (#3), Sweden (#6) & Italy (#7)

2) You Came, released on the 4th of July 1988, was the biggest selling of Kim Wilde. Charting #3 in the UK, #1 in Denmark and #3 in Irelan, You Came showed a major success all around the UK & Europe. It was written with Kim Wilde and her brother about the birth of Marty. 

3) Never Trust A Stranger, released on 19 September 1988 it was her 3rd single off the album. It was another big hit around the UK & Europe. With its Hi-NRG sound Never Trust A Stranger is one of my favourite tracks of Kim Wilde. 

4) Four Letter Word, released on 21 November 1988. It was another hit in the UK & Europe as a naive love ballad. It became her third top ten hit in the UK from her album Close. 

5) Love In The Natural Way, released on 20 February 1989 it was her last release in the 80 which she was one of the biggest selling artists then. Although it was produced very well and promoted it only charted in the UK & Ireland. Love In The Natural Way was also the final release from the album Close.

EU LP (255 588-1)

EU LP Back

EU LP Inner Sleeve Front

EU LP Inner Sleeve Back

EU LP Side A 

EU LP Side B