Date: 18 July 1981
Originally published in: Nieuws van de dag (Netherlands)
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Putting aside her musical abilities, Kim Wilde is without a doubt THE face of 1981. Hair that even Debbie Harry can’t match and a couple of eyes that wouldn’t look too bad on Brigitte Bardot. In short, an eyepopping personality, the 20 year old British singer whom we were confronted with some four months ago. Of course this is aside from her musical capabilities, although she has already proved that she is capable of delivering song material with potential, since she has two hits under her belt.
Coincidence or class?
The debut album Kim Wilde has just released answers this question: class, pure class. Although the state of perfection hasn’t been reached yet (fortunately), we can safely say that we aren’t dealing with a two hit wonder this time. Kim Wilde comes across as a versatile and strong vocalist, but her 19 year old brother Ricky has the biggest surprises in store. In 10 songs he proves that he is a songwriter with a golden future. The lyrics written by father Marty are not exceptional but fit well in the consumption pop that has been made by his brood.
Stax
It’s a golden trio, the Wilde family. Besides the two hits we find at least three more single candidates on this album. “Water on glass” and “Falling out” have a similar exciting, uplifting melody like “Kids in America’ has. No surprises there. The third single candidate, however, is surprising: “2 6 5 8 0”. It proves that the Stax repertoire and other ‘black music’ from the Sixties hasn’t passed Ricky and Kim by.
A perfect musical background, like the rhythm section and a strong horn section and massive backing vocals feature in “2 6 5 8 0”, the absolute highlight of the album. But the reggae-ish “Everything we know” also shows this interest for black music.
If they haven’t used up all their energy on this strong debut album, we can expect much from the overwhelming Kim Wilde and her very musical family.
