Kim Wilde - Catch As Catch Can

Kim Wilde's third album is a key transition point in her career. Catch as Catch Can is probably Wilde's most experimental album, a continuation of the dark-hued synth rock feel of Select with hints of the more commercial dance-pop sound that would characterize the rest of her career. Certainly the first single, the gimmicky, campily strutting big band-meets-rockabilly "Love Blonde," is the oddest single of Wilde's early career. Elsewhere, the genuinely beautiful ballad "Can You Hear It" (probably the prettiest song Wilde recorded to this point), "Sparks," and the cold as ice ballad "Dream Sequence" have an atmospheric tinge, thanks to hazy backing vocals and diffused, dreamy synths. Other songs like the opening "House of Salome" and the stuttering "Back Street Joe" point toward the purely electronic Hi-NRG disco sound that would characterize 1984's Teases & Dares, and indeed pretty much every Kim Wilde release thereafter. The juxtaposition of styles makes for an uneven listen that's hard to latch on to entirely. The energy of her debut album is sorely missed, though the maturity and richness of the arrangements nearly makes up for it and when she goes purely pop, like on the lovely "Sing It Out for Love," it hard not to wish she had swung in that direction instead of towards the dancefloor.

Nena & Kim Wilde - Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime EP

Once upon a time (2003) Kim Wilde was on tour in Europe and was asked if she would contribute vocals to a re-recording of a track by Nena for a greatest hits album. I’m a bit of a closet Kim Wilde fanboy and I’ve got a passing knowledge of Nena so I was as happy as a pig having sex when Anywhere was released. Now yeah, it is extremely European pop sounding with squeaky keyboards and German / English lyrics it was a best-selling hit all over the European continent, but not released in the UK or US. Originally recorded in Nena’s native German as “Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann” an all-English version was included on Nena's 1985 album It's All In The Game (the English-language version of Feuer und Flamme). The really cheap looking video was filmed outside the London Guildhall and in and around Change Alley, London EC3.

Time To Select

Kim Wilde's second album didn't score any hits on the level of the debut's "Kids in America," although the dramatic "Cambodia" was a sort of cult favourite in some circles. That said, it's a far better album than the patchy debut; the songs, again by her brother Rikki Wilde with occasional collaborations by father Marty Wilde, don't have the bubble-gum tinge that coloured much of 1981's Kim Wilde. The arrangements are more synth-oriented, at times approaching the dark atmospherics of Japan or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The occasionally melodramatic lyrics cover topics like police brutality and paranoia (unsurprisingly, new insights aren't much in evidence) and even the love songs, like the delicate "View from a Bridge," aren't exactly happy. The overall vibe of this album is so chilly that the one basically upbeat song, "Can You Come Over," sounds really out of place, but overall, it works. Wilde sings with a clinical detachment here that suits her voice quite well; whenever Wilde tries to emote musically, the results sound forced and melodramatic, but her icy edge on this album is surprisingly appealing.

Kim Wilde

There's no doubt many heard Kim Wilde searching for the beat on "Kids in America," but know now that she finds it; thus, the rest of this sterling debut comes dangerously close in quality to that killer kick-off. The second cut, "Water on Glass," follows the sound from the wild streets to Wilde's brain, maintaining a high level of exuberant class. Weird staccato runs down the streets of "Our Town," while "Everything We Know" chills into an icy groove. Wilde only wants to be free in "Young Heroes," and by side two's single, "Chequered Love," she gives permission to touch her and do anything (surprising, considering her pro-pop dad and brother wrote the whole LP). Hard guitars and xylophones get physical, until horns and Ska skip into "2-6-5-8-0"; by this point in the record, Wilde can pull off anything she wants, and ends up sounding like a No Doubt B-side. "You'll Never Be So Wrong" mellows the turgid tempo but not the precise passion, and she just plain gets upset in "Falling Out." From the womb to the end of "Tuning in Tuning On," Kim Wilde is one excellent inaugural, one excellent chapter in the evolution of hi-NRG, and one excellent slab everyone should own.