That on 18 November 2010 she celebrates her 50th birthday can not be seen or heard from this English woman during her truly remarkable comeback. Because the sound and force of the 13 new tracks fit perfectly with the best phase of her Eighties career. Kim Wilde hadn’t sounded so fresh and seductive as she does with this, her eleventh studio album.
For the radiance of the project many inspired and motivated collaborators contributed. Executive producer was Henrik Gümoes, A & R freelancer for StarWatch Music. And so the album will also appear on SevenOne, the common label of Sony Music and the Department ProSieben Star Watch.
The list of contributors is long. First, it is pleasing to note that, with Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17) on ‘Greatest Journey’ and Nik Kershaw on ‘Love conquers all’ two colleagues from the eighties as guests from the game. A second glance reveals that in “Love Conquers All” Paul Humphreys from OMD has done is bit in producing and programing. Not only Humphreys made sure that the keyboards and synthesizers had those typical warm analog sound of the 80s, without sounding thin and rattling as then – also the person of Philip Larsen is a producer and programmer at work. He worked already for The Human League, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears and La Roux worked and refined for instance ‘Loving you more’ with a sound that best evokes memories of the past, but does not rely on nostalgia alone.
To avoid the danger of this becoming purely a retro trip, some younger experts have worked on the album too, and so friends of the Scandinavian power pop Fredrik Thomander and Anders Wikström (‘N Sync, No Angels) appear in pieces such as ‘King of the world’ or ‘Hey You!’. ‘Hey You!’ is also thanks to the keyboardist René Munk Thalund and guitarist Kristian Riis, both from the Danish band Nephew, a particularly sparkling highlight in the program.
Last but not least, mixed, of course, as with earlier releases Kim Wilde’s younger brother Ricky producer, guitarist, bassist and backing vocalist, and his daughter Scarlett is consistent with the mike. So this album gets surprisingly elegant curve of the modern flair of the Eighties popdesign, and with ‘My wish is your command’ – with a nice solo guitar work of the Welsh Peredur ap Gwynedd – is not too short on heavy rock. Only in some places, the production could have been a little more slender, and whether ‘Lights down low’, as one of the weakest tracks of the album, was the best candidate for the first single is to be doubted.
Conclusion: everyone has been drawing one line, one has thought what to design for Kim Wilde’s comeback. And therefore something sensible has come of it. Probably the English woman in her second career – she’s winning landscape gardener – will have to enter a time shorter.