| Track: | Rating: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Silent Running | | | | | |
| 2. All I Need Is A Miracle | | | | ||
| 3. Par Avion | | | |||
| 4. Hanging By A Thread | | | | ||
| 5. I Get The Feeling | | | | ||
| 6. Take The Reins | | | |||
| 7. You Are The One | | | | ||
| 8. A Call To Arms | | | | | |
| 9. Taken In | | | | | |
Notes: This is not the Paul Young who became famous in the mid-'80s with such hits as "Everytime You Go Away" and "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" -- rather, it is the former lead singer of Sad Cafe. John Kirby and Gene Stashuck are responsible for the vocals on "Par Avion" and "You Are The One", but the liner notes don't specify who sings on which. Finally, an "Etc." is added at the end of the "backing vocals" credit.
In a recent Tentative Review, I noted that the name "The Alan Parsons Project" is not held in high esteem by fans of progressive music. The same easily applies to Mike + The Mechanics.
Mike + The Mechanics was originally conceived by Mike Rutherford as a studio venture (not unlike the APP) in 1985. Reasons as to why MR decided to issue this as a "group" rather than a "solo" work are debateable, but it was at least partly the result of Rutherford's increasingly collaborative manner of recording.
The common perception of "Mike + The Mechanics" today is that of a banal adult-contemporary group, exemplifying the worst of safe, faceless corporate rock. Much of this is the result of "The Living Years", a single from their second which attained a level of popularity out of all proportion to its artistic merit. The fact that this group "peaked" commercially at about the same as Collins-era Genesis hasn't really helped its credibility either.
How accurate is this perception? Unfortunately, it must be admitted that there is considerable truth to it. Most of their "hits" have been fairly safe numbers, marked by unspectacular musical performances and indistinctive songwriting. And the Word Of Mouth album (1991) is almost entirely an adult-contemporary fiasco, from beginning to end.
If there's any defence that one can make of M+tM along these lines, its that the troubles associated with the band became progressively worse over time (some would say that Beggar On A Beach Of Gold partly redeems them, but that's not at issue here) -- and that their first album shows some diversity of styles, not all of which are as prosaic as their reputation would suggest. MR may have handled the project in a cynical manner, but he kept enough interesting material on the first M+tM album to ensure that his long-term supporters wouldn't be entirely hostile. Which counts for something. I suppose.
Even aside from this, a question of integrity might be raised as regards the musicianship on the album. Given the overlapping credits for guitar, keyboards and percussion, the listener can't be entirely certain if "The Mechanics" are actually featured on every track (the bass isn't a sure thing either -- much of it sounds like it was keyboard-generated). The extent to which Rutherford allowed (ordered?) the project to be dominated by others is a matter for some debate. It's possible that Murphy, Austin, et al. were simply brought in to "polish up" the album, but the very nature of the project can't help but invite suspicion.
Finally, a note on the singers. For his side projects, Tony Banks generally hires singers who lack strong commercial credibility on their own, but who are still somewhat remembered for hits that they sung on some years earlier (examples: Nik Kershaw, Jaymey Klimek, Jack Hues). To judge from the presence of Paul Carrack and (not the famous) Paul Young in this project, it seems that Rutherford was following a similar policy here.
Such is the troubled context in which Mike + The Mechanics is to be considered. Now, regarding the music itself ...
A single pulsating synthesized note begins "Silent Running", one of the better tracks on the album. This quickly develops into a keyboard- based theme vaguely similar to the intro of "Watcher Of The Skies" (I think I can safely assume that this isn't a coincidence). After this, the "song proper" begins.
"Silent Running" has a fairly good melody for an "'80s pop" number, primarily expressed through the keyboards and Paul Carrack's vocals. The song is primarily notable, though, for having much stranger lyrics than one might expect of this genre -- Carrack plays the role of a quasi- angelic, quasi-messianic figure, endeavouring to preserve a society from assimilation (sample lyric: "Swear allegiance to the flag, whatever flag they offer/.../Teach the children quietly, for someday sons and daughters/ Will rise up and fight while we stood still".) This may have made the top ten in America, but it can hardly be considered "another frivolous pop number" on these grounds. Rutherford's presence is limited to two guitar solos and a few tricks on the chorus, which compliment the general effect of the song rather nicely. On the down side, the processed drums sound terrible. Still, this is mostly a successful work.
The most interesting thing about "All I Need Is A Miracle" is the muffled screaming at the beginning of the track. After this, the song commences the long march of the Mechanics to more prosaic grounds. The drum programming is rather poor once again, and, lyrically, this is much closer to "another frivolous pop number" than the previous track. Paul Young's vocals are good enough when not under any strain (ie. at the beginning of the track), but have rather pronounced limitations (ie. leading up to the chorus) -- these limitations ultimately make him sound like a "vocalist for hire" in the pop market. Rutherford's role is ... not quite stronger than the previous track, but at least more audible. There isn't terribly much wrong with this track (it's even a bit catchy), but there aren't many grounds a strong case in its favour either.
Crickets chirp, drum machines click and soothing keyboard setting purr as "Par Avion" begins. The fault of this song does not lie entirely with the singer, whose voice actually adds a bit of character/pathos to the mix. The song itself, though, is tedious balladery of the formulaic variety. Not entirely worthless, but still not terribly good.
The key to understanding "Hanging By A Thread" lies in the keyboard line which appears near the beginning: it's derivative of "Mothers Talk" by Tears For Fears. Once the listener realizes this, it's fairly easy to see the entire song as a "response" to TFF's popularity. The lyrics are made up of the same "traumatized, confessional" themes that Roland Orzabal was putting forward at the time, and Young's singing sounds somehow more urgent than before. Musically, the drums, guitars and keyboards take more prominent roles than before, resulting in a track which is fairly decent in spite of its imitative nature. On the downside, there's a recurring melodic break which sounds a bit like "Don't Bring Me Down".
The second half of the album does not begin in a promising manner. "I Get The Feeling" is a mid-tempo soul number of the sort that would eventually stultify Paul Carrack's career. Keyboards and brass dominate the piece, and form dominates content. The lyrics are vaguely interesting in the first verse, and rather less so afterwards. This falls far short of being terrible, but there isn't much reason for it to be here.
"Take The Reins" is the nadir of the album, a bonehead rock track featuring dismal lyrics ("I'm an man, shut your mouth and listen, I'm not a little kid") and irritating vocals from Young. This is as close as the album comes to a total failure -- the only interesting element of the song is the closing guitar solo, which almost seems to be a parody of Steve Hackett at times (the "deliberately flashy" opening seems based on "Duel", and the subsequent section strikes my ears, at least, as blatantly derivative). I'd guess that if Alan Murphy only makes one appearance on the album, this would probably be it.
Things improve a bit from there. "You Are The One" is a throwback to an earlier period in Rutherford's career, bearing a strong imprint of Anthony Phillip's composition style [my suspicion is that Phillips could be an uncredited vocalist on this track]. Although a "less than cutting edge" ballad, this song has a certain degree of classical structure to it (especially as regards the acoustic guitar performance) which makes it generally worthwhile.
"A Call To Arms" is the album's peak. This song was originally rejected in the sessions for the Genesis album, perhaps due to its superior quality over most of the material on that release; afterwards, Rutherford and his co-writers re-arranged it for this release. Banks's influence, even second-hand, is quite prominent -- the opening keyboard line is a distinctly his creation, for example (and who else could come up with a line like "Old and young, and those of foreign tongue/Are you willing to fight"?). The song focuses on a sudden rising up of long-stilled social elements (a sequel to "Silent Running"?), and the cross of vocal lines between Young and Carrack works quite well in this context (the female backing vocals are quite chilling as well). This easily counts as the best track that the mid-'80s version of Genesis never recorded.
The album ends on a fairly decent note with "Taken In", which holds the dubious distinction of being the only song (to my knowledge) to have peaked at #32 for four consecutive weeks on the Billboard charts(!). This low-key, slightly jazzy number utilizes Paul Young's voice in a successful manner, with some interesting saxophone lines spread throughout the song. This seems a highly appropriate way to end the album.
One final note. Despite the image of M+tM in the general listening public, the album cover for their first release (featuring the distorted, Munch-esque image of an "All-American boy" type) would seem to suggest certain other forms of music entirely. It wouldn't be difficult to see The Residents, for example, using a cover of this sort.
Such is Mike + The Mechanics -- not as bad as one might expect from their image, still rather less than essential. Those interested in exploring this element of Mike's extracurricular activities should probably opt for this album over the ones that came later.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 23 February 1998)