release date: Oct. 1993
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,72]
producer: Don Was
label: Columbia Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Hope in a Hopeless World" - 2. "Now I Know What Made Otis Blue" (4,5 / 5) - 3. "Bring Me Home" - 4. "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" (4 / 5) - 5. "Won't Look Back" - 9. "Half a Step Away" - 10. "Follow On" - 11. "It Will Be You"
5th studio album by Paul Young primarily produced by Don Was - Chris Neil produced tracks #2 and #3, and Steve Lindsey track #11. It's like a fine combination of all his albums so far: with both plain pop songs, soulful tracks with some jazz feel, and a variation of covers and self-composed material. Young is co-writer on 5 of the songs. Generally, it's on the softer side of his pop / rock albums offering an album of fine pop soul.
"Now I Know What Made Otis Blue" is one of Young's absolute finest (cover) songs where his voice just fits the composition like hand in glove. The album features a vast crowd of studio musicians with a line-up that changes from song to song, but still it sounds very much like a whole, which is quite an effort. This is a fine return to form for Young, although, the album undeservedly wasn't a grand success, and that may be a result of various luck in making consistently good albums. Actually, I find that this is simply his second best album.
In 1993 Young reformed the band the Q-Tips, which had been his starting point before becoming a solo artist and with whom he had played pop soul and released two albums from 1979-82. Together with the Q-Tips, Young played a number of concerts in '93 before the band was put to rest once again.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
