Men at Work
Two Hearts

The unexpected recovery of this work, found in a three-for-two sale at a negligible price, and its subsequent listening in the car, left me quite astonished. Colin Hay's voice presented itself before me in all its richness after so much time and so many different listens and musical loves, disturbing and nourishing my spirit, benefiting my body: truly a great, great voice, capable of enchanting the soul even when singing simple pop rock tunes.

And what about Strickert's guitar? Perfect, minimalist, round, resonant, enveloping with its permanent chorus and intelligent, fitting arrangement.

I hadn’t listened to this album for at least thirty years, since I got rid of all the LPs at home to make way for CDs. And to think this is the least successful of this Australian band's three works (my favorite remains "Cargo"), so far off the radar of music history that, when the conversation "What would you save from '80s rock?" occasionally arises, I always forget to mention them. Yet they were great... I realize this by hearing them again in this somewhat neglected work and realizing that they haven't lost an ounce of their ability to hit the center of my musical tastes.

The track I prefer is "Children on Parade": that voice of Colin's that breaks in immediately, a second from the start, instantly moves me, only to completely enchant me when he sings those "Nobody knows, nobody knows..." at the end of the chorus. How beautiful!

Of course, not everything shines, in fact, there are quite a few episodes that flow by without particularly striking, especially when the singer hands the microphone over to his bandmates, as good as they may be but without an ounce of the cosmic suggestive power of their leader in their vocal cords.

This is an example of great '80s pop, not at all sugary, synthetic, or flashy. The quintet present here deserved a longer career and a greater legacy than the undeniable myth reserved for them (especially Hay) by their homeland, Australia.

It now becomes urgent for me to recover some Colin Hay albums, completely out-of-date goods around here. I understand he made a dozen works if not more... Good! It's nice to set goals that facilitate the accumulation of additional music in my already quite overloaded music collection.

Colin Hay, what a musician!