I only wish the record was as satisfying as the concert was. My wife and I have always been big fans of his so I bought the aptly-titled “About Time” disc when it came out that June and purchased tickets for us to see him and his combo perform in a relatively small venue in Dallas later that summer. Early in 2003, six long years since his last release, rumors began to surface that Steve was back in the studio with a new configuration of musicians and a revived enthusiasm for writing songs and making music. He did co-create an above-average reunion album with former Traffic brother Jim Capaldi in ’94 but his solo career sank like a flooded submarine, making many of us fear that he had thrown in the towel and retired to raise sheep on his farm till the cows came home. That said, this is a gorgeous single, the intro welling up in similar fashion to EWF’s sublime “Star” before cascading into its lovely synth-driven melody.After serving as a beacon of musical sanity and hope during the MTV virus-infected 80s by delivering top-quality albums like “Back in the High Life” and “Roll With It,” Steve Winwood’s focus inexplicably blurred and the two studio CDs he put out in the decade that followed were weak and insignificant. Within a year or two of getting high on the US charts with this fine single, he was happy to lend his music to Michelob beer commercials. “Steve Winwood probably deserved his 80’s commercial success as much as any of his fellow 60’s contemporaries, although it’s debatable whether anyone “sold out” as much as him in doing so. While You See a Chance (Arc of a Diver, 1981) Simple ideas like this can elevate the pedestrian to the pretty damn good.”ġ. (This after recording it as a duet with Chaka Khan, and then wiping most of her vocals off due to label issues.) During the recording process, he decided “hey, this stuff would sound cool by itself to start off the track”. “The producer brought in a guy to add percussion and stick work to this decent soul-pop tune. Higher Love (Back in the High Life, 1986) Perhaps that’s why I still like this one more than the others.”Ģ. “Sandwiched between his other singles from the album, this one was a bit out there with its hazy imagery and art-film music video. Freedom Overspill (Back in the High Life, 1986) Here Winwood harkens back to his Traffic days.”ģ. I liked Winwood better on Arc of a Diver when the drums weren’t so dominating. BIG 80’s drum sounds punctuating Winwood’s organ work. (As a side note, he sounds like he has a much better keyboard and drum machine than most people in 1982 had.) And much of my enjoyment of the song comes from that – he sounds like a slightly giddy kid, with just the right amount of yearning in his voice when he hits the high notes. This earlier version has quite a bit more space in it, with Steve sounding like he’s making it up on the spot with his keyboard and drum machine. “Later filled out somewhat and re-released into the top ten. Valerie (Talking Back to the Night, 1982) In this case, however, the radio edit’s truncation of the intro and deletion of the post-first-chorus synthesizer wank actually removes whatever semblance of a soul this song once had.”ĥ. “Winwood’s album cuts have a tendency to be longer than they need to be, so I wouldn’t normally object to shaving off nearly two minutes of bloat. The Finer Things (Back in the High Life, 1986)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |