Date: 1 November 2001
Published in: Q (UK)
Written by: John Harris
In the late ’70s, veteran rocker Marty Wilde had the smart idea of co-writing songs with his failed pop-star son Ricky for his not-unattractive daughter Kim. Their jumping-off point was a collison of synth-pop and New Wave entitled Kids In America. It launched a run of hits: Chequered Love, Water On Glass, View From A Bridge – and the deliriously weird Cambodia, in which Kim sang about the micro-sociological consequences of US foreign policy. Her second, technofied phase (see 1986’s You Keep Me Hanging On) wasn’t nearly as interesting but listening to two thirds of this album still casts flattering light on the woman who, according to Julie Burchill, had a mouth “like a bruised vulva”.