Radio Silence - Radio Silence
Tracks: Primitive Man Don't Hold On Convertible Car Let It Rain Radio Silence Big Wide World Tower Of Strength God Only Knows Mighty High Horse Love In A Stranger's Arms The Last Frontier Can't Stand Still Label: Escape Music Ltd Year: 1997 Producer: Alistair Gordon & Andy Macpherson Total Playing Time: 51:16 m:s
The sweeping comparisons that I've seen to describe Radio Silence's music are Mike & The Mechanics and Foreigner. Having listened to the album for a while I'm going to add the name of 80's pop icons Go West. Although the lightweight pop/rock of Mike & The Mechanics is the type of stuff I don't mind hearing on the radio, it's not what I'd normally consider buying.
The kick-off track is lacklustre and not what I'd have picked as an opening track. Don't Hold On sees the boys setting their stall out firmly at the pop end of the AOR spectrum. More than anything else this hints at the type of classy sounding material that gets unleashed later on.
Convertible Car's quirky rhythm and blasts of saxophone place it firmly in the 80s. It's a bit of a love or hate it song. I'm afraid the hate it opinion is beginning to dominate.
Let It Rain whisks you away to a more relaxing place and sets you up for the title track. Radio Silence is the type of pop semi-ballad that 80s luminaries such as Go West would have dominated the charts with.
Up until the 5th track, the pseudo-funk workouts and pop ballads have been pleasant listening, but perhaps wouldn't set the world alight. Then the band put that convertible car they were singing about earlier into top gear and start travelling at top speed. Big Wide World's funky arrangement and blasts of brass transform the whole listening experience. Some saxophone makes an interesting alternative to listening to lead guitars.
Tower Of Strength had me racking my brains. It sounded very familiar. At one point I thought it was a cover of a Heartland song. It took a long time to figure out that it was featured on the Hard RoxX/Escape sampler disk from a while ago. An excellent AOR tune.
God Only Knows and Mighty High Horse maintain the quality of the output.
If you had told me whenever I started Mood Swings that I'd find myself getting excited about a pop/funk tune that wouldn't be out of place on a dance floor I'd have doubted your sanity. However, I keep selecting Love In A Stranger's Arms as the album highlight.
Both The Last Frontier and Can't Stand Still keep you interested right to the end of the album.
Primitive Man and Convertible Car both let the side down at the start. I'm also not that happy with having 3 ballads, albeit good ones, all stuck so early in the album. Maybe a few tweaks in the running order would have sorted these problems.
Perhaps it's just that I'm enjoying listening to something different to normal, but a cassette with this on it has had virtually permanent residence in my car cassette player most of the month. If you're looking for something at the pop end of the rock spectrum, then I have no qualms about recommending this.
Rating: 8
