Released on October 3, 1986, ‘Another step’ is Kim Wilde’s fifth studio album, and the second one for MCA Records.
Music
The basic concept of the album is that side A consists of up-tempo songs and side B consists of ballads. Kim got the idea for this concept after listening to Janet Jackson’s album ‘Control’.
The songs were written by many different contributors. Kim Wilde and Steve Byrd collaborated on three tracks, while Ricki and Marty Wilde wrote six, of which four were co-written with Kim. One track was written by Kim Wilde, one by O.S. Blandamer and one by Sembello, Rudolph and Donnell junior. Finally, the album inluded a cover version of You Keep Me Hangin’ On, which was written by Holland, Dozier, Holland.
Musically, the album featured a ‘harder’ rock sound, in which synthesizers were less prominent than on previous albums. The division between uptempo and ballad tracks was evident, but the ballads were partly mid-tempo songs, making the B-side sound diverse enough.
Lyrically, the songs included more love songs than before. There were a few exceptions: Schoolgirl for instance was inspired by the Chernobyl disaster and dealt with an environmental theme.
Tracks
The album contains the tracks You Keep Me Hangin’ On, Hit Him, Another Step (Closer To You), The Thrill Of It, I’ve Got So Much Love, Schoolgirl, Say You Really Want Me, She Hasn’t Got Time For You, Brothers, Missing, How Do You Want My Love, Don’t Say Nothing’s Changed.
The cd and tape versions also contain the track Victim.
Artwork
The artwork was designed by Simon Marsh and features a photograph of Kim before a map of the world. There are two versions of this sleeve: in the first edition, the map was coloured by hand. Only months later, this first version was replaced with a more smoothly coloured red and green background.
Outside Europe, Australia and Japan, ‘Another step’ was presented with an entirely different sleeve, containing a black and white photograph.
Formats
‘Another Step’ was originally released on LP, cd and tape. The album was re-released in the UK in 1987, featuring some extra tracks.
See also this page in the discography.
In 2010, Cherry Pop released a remastered and expanded 2CD version of ‘Another Step’, featuring the original album plus 17 bonus tracks. This version contained almost all the tracks related to the Another Step album, with the exception of the original album version of Another Step (Closer to You) and the soundtrack version of ‘Say You Really Want Me’. Also, the urban mix of ‘Say You Really Want Me’ was missing – a different edited version of the track was labeled as such. Three tracks were recorded from vinyl because they were no longer available from the archives at Universal Records.
See also this page in the discography.
A further re-release of ‘Another Step’ happened in June 2013, when Universal released a so-called SHM-CD in Japan. This was the original album version remastered for a new “super high material” cd. This version came in a vinyl replica sleeve and had two bonus tracks: Loving You and Hold Back.
See also this page in the discography.
Credits
Drum programming, drums, percussion: Richard James Burgess
Guitars, backing vocals: Steve Byrd
Keyboards, synths: Guy Fletcher
Synth programming and playing: Paul Fox
Fairlight III programming, keyboards: Reinhold Heil
Guest vocals on ‘Another step’: Junior Giscombe
Drums: Matthew Letley
Keyboards: Danny Sembello
Bass guitar: Gary Twigg
Fairlight III, synths, backing vocals: Ricki Wilde
Drum programmes: Kim Wilde, Pete Schwier
Backing vocals: Don Haywoode, Emmah, Paulette McWilliams, Lisa Fisher, Myrne Smith-Schilling
Brass section: The Kick Horns (Roddy Lorimer, Tim Sanders, Simon Clarke)
Produced by Ricki Wilde, Richard James Burgess, Reinhold Heil, Rod Temperton, Dick Rudolph, Bruce Swedien, Kim Wilde
Recorded and mixed at Select Sound Studios, Knebworth, Larrabee Sound, Los Angeles and Westlake Audio, Los Angeles
Kim about ‘Another Step’
Well, it was an idea that I had during the time that I was listening to the Janet Jackson album, her album is like that, the ‘Control’ one, and we’d finished the album, and also we had a lot of tracks and a lot of them were very mellow and a lot of them were up-tempo. And I thought it worked really well in a cassette situation. You know, like in a walkman, to have a ‘mood music’. (1)
Making ‘Another Step’ was a time of great insecurity for all of us. MCA were giving us a lot of hassle: they were putting a question mark over Ricky producing me and over every song we’d record. But its success has meant that Ricky, Dad and I are united as a team again, and we’ve resolved that we’re going to make another great album together. (2)
Chart performance
Canada: 11
Germany: 41 (17 weeks)
Netherlands: 52 (5 weeks)
Sweden: 49 (4 weeks)
Switzerland: 5 (8 weeks)
United Kingdom: 73 (5 weeks)
United States: 40 (26 weeks)
Interview sources
(1) KPLZ Radio, Seattle (US), 1986
(2) Some like it hot, Sounds (UK), 19 September 1987
