I'll be upfront and say I've never liked this album. My summary of it would be: a dreadful eighties rock/pop crossover with near constant saxophone solos, endless harmonica riffs and sloppy drumming. This is a traditional rock and roll 'band in room' recording and was clearly designed to be easily replicated on the road (I think Dave even says as much in his autobiography). Electronic music this is not...
"Missionary Man" has some synth elements but they are overwhelmed in the primordial rock soup of the backing track. "Thorn In My Side" is a great song but a bit of Mellotron is the only nod to electronic music. The dreadful "When Tomorrow Comes" merely serves to remind us that we have moved a million miles from "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)". Things improve slightly with the next track "The Last Time" as it features a squelchy synth line and some DX7 tubular bells alongside the primitive acoustic drums and obligatory harmonica. "The Miracle of Love" is a ballad that just makes me want to throw the record out of the window: it's just dull twaddle.
The upbeat "Let's Go!" opens side two but the sonic ingredients remain depressingly familiar and as a consequence, the end result is indistinguishable from the rest of the dross on here. "Take Your Pain Away" is excruciating to listen to and whilst "A Little Of You" is slight more palatable, it remains tedious with only a little orchestra thrown in for variety. I can't bring myself to listen to "In This Town" but I don't remember it offering any improvement on what has gone before. Only the closing track "I Remember You" has any interest as it has an enchanting melody and the harmonica has finally been ditched. Unfortunately, as the last track on the vinyl, this song suffers from terrible distortion on my copy and thus the only decent track is ruined. Quite fitting. 1/5
