Cutting Crew
Broadcast

THE REVIEW

The "Cutting Crew" was a British band with strong Canadian ties (guitarist, producer, recording studio), dedicated to a genre of pop rock bordering on AOR (Adult Oriented Rock, very popular in Canada and fashionable worldwide at the time). Formed as a quartet in 1985, the group held on for three albums before throwing in the towel in 1993. This "Broadcast" (1986) is their first, as well as best-known and best-selling work.

I consider it a little gem in its genre, full of potential hits even if only one of them, namely "(I Just) Died In Your Arms", truly made it (No. 1 in the United Kingdom and Canada, inevitably). To enjoy the album, one must first come to terms with and accept the evident sound abuses fashionable at the time, like the booming drums with improbable reverbs and invasive synthesizers. Then, one must not fall into the typical snobbery of rejecting, a priori, any musical offer containing a clear commercial and pandering component. After that, since quality writing, a beautiful voice, intelligent performances, and excellent production (by Terry Brown, with a long experience with Canadian band Rush) are present, all you need is a keen melodic inclination and a pinch of romanticism to stabilize this music inside your PC, i-Pod, or CD library, ready to flood your ear canals.

As in a thousand other formations, everything revolves around the special camaraderie and musical harmony between singer and guitarist. The frontman Nick Van Eede (launched into the music business by Chas Chandler, discoverer of Jimi Hendrix) has a great romantic and evocative timbre, theoretically perfect even for progressive (in fact, he was in contention, in the mid-nineties, for the spot left vacant by Phil Collins in Genesis, making it to the "final" but unjustly losing the ballot to Ray Wilson).

The late Kevin MacMichael (who passed away at the age of fifty-one in 2002) was an intelligent, measured guitarist, with a great very round and warm sound and many beautiful melodic ideas inspired by his country of origin, naturally inclined to elegant and measured AOR sounds. He would have deserved better fortune, regarding both his health and artistic career, for example by collaborating longer with Robert Plant and not just for the album "Fate Of Nations" (1993). Kevin's guitar lightly brushes across all ten tracks of "Broadcast" with economical and creative, sonorous and sinuous interventions, with great control of touch and vibrato lever, leaving the bulk of the work to keyboards with solid "pads" and vibrant rhythmic/melodic sequences, entrusted to a true electronics specialist, guest Peter John Vettese (at the time with Jethro Tull).

I am very attached to a good half of the songs on "Broadcast", well interspersed in the album between more rhythmic and slower episodes. I primarily adore the closing track, which also gives the album its title and is played on an ethereal first half devoid of rhythm, which then plunges with exquisite class into a beautiful funky/stomping second part, capable of enriching and making the vocal melody definitively captivating.

"One For The Mockingbird" is followed without interruption, with a long and elegant mix, by the emphatic and sparkling opener "Any Colour" and surpasses it qualitatively thanks to an extremely catchy chorus and a brief but exquisite solo by MacMichael, already in full evidence in the accompaniment.

"I've Been In Love Before" and "Sahara", the former a decent success even as a single, are the atmospheric, hyper-romantic, and enveloping ballads.

"(I Just) Died In Your Arms", responsible due to its wide notoriety and recognizability for pigeonholing Cutting Crew (unfortunately and undeservedly) among the so-called One Hit Wonders, is a perfect semi-ballad that builds up in its quiet and subdued verses, only to explode in its very melodic and sexy chorus, with guitar and keyboards taking turns expertly accompanying the voice in the spotlight. I also liked the very simple video made at the time to promote the song, with Van Eede, for much of it, running frantically, chased by the steady-cam, around the stage on which the band is playing, set up in the center of a warehouse, constantly brushing against equipment, cables, technicians, and occasionally tripping over something or someone.   

Having started with the wind in their sails thanks to a decidedly leading single, Cutting Crew made an unwelcome half-flop with the second album "The Scattering" (1989), in my opinion comfortably deserving four stars and containing a couple more great tracks. The third and last work "Compus Mentus" of 1992, which as a fan I rate three stars, poorly distributed at the time because they were on the verge of being dropped by the multinational Virgin, is certainly listenable, but this time lacks excellent episodes. A pity.

N.B.: the cover loaded in the review is the European one: in the American version it is completely different, played in shades of gray and with the band's name written in block letters.