Title - 'Add to Favourites'
Artist - Cutting Crew
For those not in the know, Cutting Crew are an English rock band formed in 1985. They are best remembered for their debut album Broadcast and hit singles, "(I Just) Died in Your Arms", "I've Been in Love Before", "One for the Mockingbird", and "Everything But My Pride".
Now down to just original lead singer Nick Van Eede (a friend of mine), this brand new album actually still managed to surprise me - in the fact that I had no idea he was still recording under their guise! Ergo, Add to Favourites, out now via Cherry Red Records (UK) is a quite different-than-previously-heard flashback to a band that, for a small chunk of time, ruled the airwaves.
Add To Favourites is the 5th studio album release by Nick and his Crew, and features the first single, and opening track, "Till The Money Run$ Out." A breezy pop sound, it is backed by the hipsway R&B sensibility's of "Looking for a Friend" and the stoic ballad storytelling of "Berlin in Winter." The laid back, late nite, smokey jazz club appeal of "Kept on Lovin' You" is followed by the ballad "San Ferian," before the mid-tempo balladeer work of "Already Gone.'
With this new band comprising guitarists Gareth Moulton and Joolz Dunkley, bassist Nick Kay, keyboardist Jono Harrison, drummer Martyn Barker and the Blackjack Horns, it is very abundantly clear that Van Eede had no personal need to recapture the 80's sound that had once been so kind to him and his original Crew.
Which, in truth, is not such a band thing, for as we progress, quiet piano ballads such as "As Far as I Can See" combine with ease upbeat jam fests such as "Biggest Mistake of My Life," before the hauntingly ethereal "Only for You" makes way for the final track of the ten, "(She Just Happened to Be) Beautiful" ("She was old enough to haunt me, young enough to run". A beautifully diverse album, from a "band" that are trying something different - and succeeding in spades.
CD Purchase Link
www.CherryRed.co.uk
www.CuttingCrew.biz