27 Kasım 2016 Pazar

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. 

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