Chris Rea - Wired To The Moon [1984]

Bitrate: CBR 320 kb/s
Genre: Rock
Year: 1984



Artist: British singer and guitarist Chris Rea has enjoyed a run of popularity in Europe during the late '80s and early '90s after almost a decade of previous recording. Rea started out performing with a local group called Magdalene, taking David Coverdale's place; the band won a national talent contest in 1975 as the Beautiful Losers, but still failed to get a record contract. Rea left the band and recorded the album Whatever Happened to Benny Santini?, which alluded to a discarded stage name, which went gold on the strength of the U.S. Top 20 hit "Fool (If You Think It's Over)." Rea was not heard from again in the U.S. for some time, concentrating his efforts on his main fan base of Europe. A compilation of tracks from Rea's '80s albums, New Light Through Old Windows, was released in 1988 and sold well in the U.K. and Europe and charted in the U.S. Rea followed it up with the critically acclaimed The Road to Hell, which many regarded as his best album. It and its follow-up, Auberge, went to the top of the U.K. album charts, but did not prove as successful in the U.S., where he has failed to chart with his subsequent releases. He released his most ambitious project in 2005, an eleven-album, 130-track box set of all new material inspired by the blues and his own paintings called Blue Guitars.

Album: Unlike his later work, which is much more vocal- and guitar-centered, the music of "WTTM" is primarily arranged for keyboards, with guitars often providing sonic texture instead of functioning as a lead instrument. Originally released two years before his commercial breakthrough, 1986's "On the beach", "WTTM" is one of Rea's overlooked early albums. Rea also plays most of the other instruments. Lyrically, "WTTM" doesn't venture beyond the tenets of pop music - Rea writes love songs to his wife and his daughter. While this concept is rarely challenging and not nearly as interesting as his late-'80s/early-'90s themes, the music on "WTTM" is very pleasant and doesn't sound too outdated. More important, nearly every song would qualify for radio airplay. "Bombollini", in particular, delivers a densely percussive sound with wonderful guitar/marimba/keyboard exchanges. The 6 1/2-minute "Winning" truly lives up to its title and features a Stonesy guitar riffs. The album's best known songs, however, are the title track, "I don't know. . ", and the ballad "Ace of hearts", the latter being re-recorded by Rea for his hit compilation "New light through old windows". With lots of different guitar/keyboard textures, uncommon drum rhythms and clean production, "WTTM" is one of Rea's most interesting performances. But since he's a very good singer/songwriter as well, all these features turn "WTTM" into one of the best albums Rea has ever made.

Tracks:
01 Bombollini
02 Touche D'Amour
03 Shine Shine Shine
04 Wired To The Moon
05 Reasons
06 I Don't Know What It Is But I Love It
07 Ace Of Hearts
08 Holding Out
09 Winning