Wild & Moody [1:21] Stranger Things Have Happened [4:09] Kill That Thermostat [4:48] Helpless [5:04] The Price To Pay [5:12] Bounds Of Reason, Bonds Of Love [3:50] Walking To The Beat [6:01]

product info

Recorded at Alfa Studio "A" and LDK Aug. to Sep. 1984 Yukihiro Takahashi - keyboards, vocals, drums Steve Jansen - words on track 2 Peter Barakan - words on track 3 and 5 Iva Davies - Oboe, guitar, backing vocals, words on track 7 Ryuichi Sakamoto - Fairlight Hosono - bass Mitsuru - sax Hideki Matsuke - Orange-2 Myrah & Penny, Rodney Drummer - backing vocals Bill Nelson - guitar, vocals, words on track 6

review

At barely thirty minutes more a maxi-single than a full-length album, this first post-YMO project by Yukihiro Takahashi is also a bit short on ideas. Its overall atmosphere is slightly lacklustre - "Moody" only perhaps, but "Wild" is a definite overstatement. Plenty of harsh industrial sounds and a few contributions from former YMO buddies Sakamoto (Fairlight) and Hosono (bass) as well as Bill Nelson on guitar/vocal can't conceal the fact that the musical material is a bit average, a significant pointer perhaps being the fact that all the song-lyrics come from writers other than Takahashi. On the plus side, Takahashi's voice has never sounded better, making it less of a potential irritation and the addition of a few female backing singers also help things along. The best song is perhaps the Neil Young cover 'Helpless' though the album closes strongly with 'Walking To The Beat', co-written with Iva Davies. 1999. Ivar de Vries