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Rating: The pop music of the eighties produced a lot of atrocious junk, including tiresome and unbearable mass phenomena such as the tone-deaf Duran Duran and the voiceless Paul Young (who?), but also a certain number of absolutely brilliant (British) gems: Prefab Sprout, Tears for Fears, Talk Talk… and Level 42.
Truly an unusual situation for this last band whose name, taken from the well-known bestseller by Douglas Adams “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” is more than fitting: their music is indeed enjoyable on different… levels, from the popular/easygoing throwaway songs to the butt-shaking punch of the discos, all the way to the aware, analytical and perhaps somewhat snobbish appreciation of music lovers and musicians. It is undeniable that the quartet consisted of high-level musicians, a couple of whom were even exceptional, and I am referring to the drummer Phil Gould and the charismatic leader of the group, the blonde and stocky bassist/singer Mark King.
Mark's extreme musicality led him to start as a drummer, acquiring perfect timing and accent control during his teenage years… only to transfer it all to the bass, the new instrument chosen (at nineteen) to express himself, adding singing as well shortly after, just because. The result is a bassist who plays with a killer groove, very percussive but not intrusive thanks to a… ring of insulating tape applied to the right thumb, at the point mostly used for plucking the strings, meant to dampen the high notes. At the same time, here you have a warm and relaxed singer, almost a crooner, dealing with extended melodic lines, often somewhat banal, especially rhythmically completely independent from the busy evolutions on the four strings. For those who know music and have seen him in action, a truly difficult combination to put together, yet achieved with amazing naturalness. Study? Fierce dedication? Not at all… to the question: "How do you manage to sing and play the bass simultaneously like that?" he always responded, "I don’t know, it’s been like that for me since day one, it never cost me any effort!"
Unfortunately, Phil Gould is no longer the drummer of Level 42 on this record: he left together with his brother, the guitarist Rowland aka “Boon,” right after the recordings of the previous album “Running In The Family.” He will return in the nineties for one more, final work with the band. The replacement is top-notch: Gary Husband has played, and will play in the future, with many people in the jazz, rock, progressive field… he is also more known and esteemed than Phil, but in my opinion, he doesn't measure up. Phil's style is inimitable, fluid, full of dead notes and all those little taps here and there on the kit that are not individually perceptible but contribute greatly to the groove and feeling. Husband, in comparison, seems rigid, especially on the hi-hat. “Staring At The Sun” suffers from the drummer change compared to the albums that preceded it, this is my opinion.
The same thing doesn't happen, in my view, with the change of guitarist: Boon Gould was a king of the throw away style, as the English say, which means sloppy, fluid, with no accents. The new Alan Murphy is more biting, has a more prominent and sustained sound.
In this record, I like four tracks: in order of appearance, the first is "Take A Look,” thanks to a catchy chorus. The second is “Silence,” dominated by keyboardist Mike Lindup who composes the music and lyrics and sings it with his fluted voice, for once not engaged in the characteristic falsetto counterpoints to King’s baritone voice, one of Level 42's trademarks.
The third thing that excites me is the substantial “Man,” almost seven and a half minutes of progressive/funky/fusion/pop placed towards the end of the album, after many little songs (well-made and divinely played, but still), with inspired changes in rhythm and atmosphere, keyboards programmed with exquisite class by the “fifth man,” the producer Wally Badarou who really gives Lindup substantial help in terms of timbres and settings.
The last mention is for the closing instrumental, the melancholic “Gresham Blues,” a true musical epitaph for the poor Alan Murphy, who joined the band when the HIV virus had long been diagnosed in his body: he will sadly pass away soon after, the year following the release of this album (1988), at just thirty-six years old. The competent and expressive guitar of this excellent performer (Kate Bush, Go West, Mike + The Mechanics his collaborations before this closing with Level) plays the suggestive theme (composed by King) and its variations, supported by Lindup's synthesizer and a beautiful saxophone, played by a certain Krys Mach: a worthy musical and human farewell, closing a virtuous and light work, too light for a band with enormous potential, but too leaning towards the little tune in the second part of its career.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Heaven in My Hands (04:41)
I'm going nowhere
Gotta face up to it
Gotta wake up to it
I feel so guilty
Killing time is a sin
A dam burst of dreams flows thru' me
They show me where I could be
Flash point feelings flow
Thru' my mind moving
When my friends tell me
You just can't connect
You ain't got no respect
They tell me nothing
'Cos I know about that
Yes I know about that
I'm not gonna take what people say
Don't feel that I belong today
Sense of freedom and
Sense of pride
From the mountains to the sea
I'll run across this land
Looking out for strength and beauty
A diamond in the sand
And I will chase the four winds over
Trying to understand
And I won't stop until I'm holding
Heaven in my hands
I won't let nobody
Turn me off the track
Now there's no turning back
Won't let no worries
Turn my inside down
Now there's no room for doubt
I'm heading for my destiny
And it feels electric to me
Flash point feelings flow
Thru' my mind
I was lonely going nowhere
Drowning on dry land
I was almost stranded there a
Shipwreck on the sand
But now I'll chase the whole world over
Making my demands
And I won't stop until I'm holding
Heaven in my hands
From the mountains to the sea
I'll run across this land
Looking out for strength and beauty
A diamond in the sand
And I will chase the four winds over
Trying to understand
And I won't stop until I'm holding
Heaven in my hands
I was lonely going nowhere
Drowning on dry land
I was almost stranded there a
Shipwreck on the sand
But now I'll chase the whole world over
Making my demands
And I won't stop until I'm holding
Heaven in my hands
(Repeat)
03 Take a Look (04:41)
I'm a ragged man with a ragged heart
but I wear my soul with pride
you can see me on the road
see my carrying my home
and perhaps it seems that I'm all alone
but I'm happy here inside
you can keep your fancy dress
'cause to me it don't impress
when I look in your face
that camera smile looks out of place on you
by the look in your eyes
I can see you realize
so lend yourself to me
I'll show you what could be
well I've come so far down so many roads
I've experienced your pain
you know that that's a fact
I can see the way you act
but I learned to see what was wrong with me
and I won't go back again
I know I've made mistakes
but I also made the break
you surround yourself
with secrets you are afraid to show to the world
you convince yourself
there's no other way to go don't you
see the smile on my face
does it look so out of place
so lend yourself to me
I'll show you what could be (yes I will)
so many ways
for you to spend the passing days
loving and living or losing and using
life is forgiving so use it well
feeling revealing or wheeling and dealing
life's not for stealing and time will tell
take a look at your face
take a look at your face
you must surely know
if man made heaven then man made hell
so take a look at yourself
what's this secret you can't tell me
(when I look in your face
I see that smile so out of place on you
and by the look in your eyes
I can see you realize, oh yeah)
06 Tracie (04:51)
steppin' out from underneath my shadow
walking home from fridays nine to five
rememberin' the long way round the meadow
the one we used to take from time to time
I thought about you
how you must have changed now baby
far away from me
how I used to savour all your kisses
where no one else could see
exchanging knowing glances across the schoolroom
dreamin' of a love down by the sea
changing plans to cover up for one another
working on our secret fantasy
but now as I walk down the road to your house baby
there's no one there but me
how I wish that I could steal your kisses
just as they used to be
and I wanna know
Tracie, where are you now girl
I don't know why this feeling's so strong
Tracie, where have you been
you know there's no one now to tell us we're wrong
countin' by the street lights to the phone box
where we used to meet before the dawn
smoking on the top floor of the school bus
promising the moon as we rode along
but now if I saw you across a crowded dance floor
or somewhere in the town
would you show me what I have been missing
and spin me round and round
Tracie, where are you now girl
I don't know why this feeling's so strong
Tracie, where have you been
you know there's no one now to tell us we're wrong
'cause deep inside from some other place
I turn to find we're there face to face
we laugh, we cry, we work and we play
as love filled night gives way to the day
(repeat chorus)
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