release date: Nov. 1994
format: digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,48]
producer: Ian Levine
label: Vision Music Entertainment - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Grazing in the Grass" (4 / 5) - 3. "That's How Heartaches Are Made" - 5. "Just a Little Misunderstanding" - 10. "Ain't No Sunshine" - 12. "More Love"
6th studio album by Paul Young released on a new label after his long-time contract with CBS / Sony. The style has changed to a lighter and funkier pop / rock with elements of contemporary r&b and soul pop. Unlike his former albums this doesn't contain any tracks written by Young. The release was a rather unnoticed one by both critics as well as music buyers, perhaps due to poor / little promotion. Three singles were released from the album none of which even entered the top 100 in the UK. The album is, however, by no means a mediocre collection of songs and just outside his top-3 best studio releases. Young's voice still sounds fine, and he still adds the usual quality to several tracks, but the album doesn't contain obvious hits, and I generally don't appreciate the funky up-tempo arrangements of roughly half of the tracks, whereas the other half are stronger soulful ballads. The album topped at #64 on the albums chart list in the UK, but frankly, I find this clearly bettering his 1990 album Other Voices reaching #4 on the same list but that album was promoted by CBS / Sony.
In the aftermath of the release Young played together with the 6-piece band Los Pacaminos, which had been formed in '92, as a playground for playing Tex-Mex-inspired music. The band has kept playing together and in 2002 an eponymous album was released.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5 stars ]
