Tuesday 20 January 2009

Hitkrant, 1984: Shine single and album review

Reviews of Frida's Shine single and album from Dutch magazine Hitkrant. The single was very well received with a rating of 4 out of 5. The album review was considerably less positive.
Frida/‘Shine’/Polydor 881 282-7
Yet again, this is a completely different Frida than the Frida we’ve come to know from her previous solo album, produced by Phil Collins. A delightful rock-song, written by Guy Fletcher, among others, and produced by Steve Lillywhite. Kirsty McColl is singing along on backing vocals. A very contemporary, danceable track, sung with attitude. I’m very curious about the album.

Frida/‘Shine’/Polydor 823 580-1
With clenched fists, Frida is portrayed on the album sleeve; with her new solo album and her new producer, Frida apparently wants to prove that she has kept up to date. Actually, she underlined that already with the single ‘Shine’, the title-track. ‘Shine’ is a delightful rocker, sung with attitude. I wish she had sung the rest of the album like that! Unfortunately, on the contrary. Of course, Frida is certainly not a bad singer. She has a recognizable tone of voice that stands apart, but on ‘Shine’ her singing is generally very whimpering and whining. Of course the songs are to blame as well. There are nice songs on the album, especially ‘Slowly’ by Björn and Benny, a song with beautiful lyrics, that are tailor-made for Frida. The rocker ‘Chemistry Tonight’ by Simon Climie and Peter Glenister has some spunk as well. For the rest, the album is very disappointing to me. I think especially side 2, that contains slow, almost tiresome songs, is bad. It's a shame, it could have been so good. After all, a lot of big names have collaborated on the album, that was recorded in Paris. The fans will probably not thank me for this, but I can’t make it any better than it is. This really isn’t a first class album. Perhaps Frida should act a little less modern.

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