Review – Select

“An airplane that breaks the sound barrier makes a lot more noise than a broken heart” (Marilyn Monroe). Kim Wilde went out to make the teenage dress heard with noisy trash-pop, and let everyone get weak, on her first LP cover with shy deer eyes (there is coolness behind it) and full sensual lips. But on SELECT her hair has become dull and her face looks tired. Worried about the little, old-fashioned girl who prefers to wear “macho clothes” (to escape the platinum-blonde fate of getting old and fat in backyards or falling into swimming pools attracted to parties). “My venus in blue jeans is everything I hope she be / a teenage goddess from above” (Jimmy Clanton 1962), “My monster in black tights, you’ve got that kind of blood that likes” (Screaming Lord Sutch 1963).

This is not a record for fluffy hours of sunshine on the beach or in the park, but defiant music for dark moments in which Kim’s plaintive, suffering, demanding sigh melts in your voice (do beautiful, unapproachable blondes carry the suffering of the world in their hearts?). Ten full hits. Naturally with the last two larger than life singles (even if “Sailing to the Falkland Isles” would have been more current instead of “Flying to Cambodia”). Dramas from overwhelming, everyday life, in the well-known, tried-and-tested old-make-new packaging from Ricky Wilde’s hammering, clattering synthetic wall. Timeless! With energy that prevents (or should) prevent us from drowning in badness (which, to our boredom, enough others do). Better than Blondie (THE HUNTER is too old pop) and the equally good counterpart to the light-hearted, equally necessary Altered Images (Blondie and Kim Wilde are of course 100 times better than Altered Images – Red.)