release date: Mar. 25, 1985
format: cassette / 2 cd (2007 remaster - Deluxe Edition)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]
producer: Laurie Latham
label: Edsel Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Bite the Hand That Feeds" (4 / 5) - 2. "Every Time You Go Away" (5 / 5) - 3. "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse" (4 / 5) - 4. "Standing on the Edge" - 5. "Soldier's Things" (5 / 5) - 6. "Everything Must Change" - 7. "Tomb of Memories" (3,5 / 5) - 8. "One Step Forward" (4 / 5) - 10. "This Means Anything"
2nd studio album by Paul Young originally released on Columbia Records. Stylistically, this is a move away from the synthpop and pop-shape of the debut to a more mature and complex style of pop / rock founded in soul.
Already in the aftermath of his debut album Young experienced problems with his vocal chords and suffered throat difficulties - something that would re-appear throughout his career, and explain his few live tours, a steady increasing period between studio releases, and a general absence from the spotlight.
I recall buying the album on original cassette upon the release, and I was rather fond of the album - the only Paul Young album, I have bought when it was released. I have always found this album by Young his absolute best, and I have often wondered why he didn't continue in its footprints instead of returning to contemporary pop. This is also pop but it's also so much more than 'just' that with a distinct tone of jazz and soul. Again, the best tracks on this album are cover versions, but here they have been totally rearranged to fit his expression and the sound of the album, which is quite homogeneous despite the many writers and composers, which also distances it from the debut, which sounded more like a compilation of tracks.
The album went straight to number #1 on the national albums chart list like his debut album, but also the single "Everytime You Go Away" topped the charts, and other singles (tracks #3 and #6) from the album became top 10 single hits in the UK. My favourite track of the album is "Soldier's Things" written by Tom Waits. The original is great but so is this, and the best thing is how Young doesn't even try one bit to sound like Waits but simply manages to make the song his own. Only years later I realised that Waits had written the song and released it on his great album Swordfishtrombones from 1983.
The album comes in various re-issues and I happen to have the 2007 2-disc Deluxe Edition released on Edsel Records containing a bonus disc of 12" mixes and single B-sides. Paul Young went on to make other fine albums but he never again managed to record an album of this high standard.
To me, this is an essential album of the 1980s and thus highly recommendable.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
