Published on Feb 12, 1999
I’m used to getting CDs in the mail from record companies who
are looking to help promote their artists by having us review them.
What I’m not used to is having
readers send me CDs.
Doug Guillory believes so much in
Elemental, the latest album from The Fixx, that he sent me a
copy of the disc. All he asked was that whoever reviewed it keep an
open mind and write a fair review.
Now, having spent my formative teenage years growing up in the
’80s during the birth of MTV, I knew Cy Curnin and crew fairly
well. I knew what the band was capable of putting out – as heard in
songs like “Sunshine In The Shade,” “One Thing Leads To Another,”
“Saved By Zero” and “Are We Ourselves”. I also knew that the last I
had heard of the band was their album
Ink, an album that, to put it mildly, disappointed me. (I’ll
admit I haven’t listened to that one since I was in college.)
Had Curnin and crew tried to recapture the sound and feel of the
band from the ’80s, I would have predicted that the results would
have been disastrous. So, it is a wise move for the band (Curnin,
guitarist Jamie West-Oram, keyboardist Rupert Greenall, drummer
Adams Woods and bassist Chris Tait) to try and forge a new sound
for themselves at the turn of the millenium. True, it’s one that
taks a little time to get used to, but is well worth the
effort.
In Curnin’s case, the years since the glory days of The Fixx
have treated his voice well. There is a greater sense of maturity
in the vocals on
Elemental, as heard on tracks like “Happy Landings,” “Ocean
Blue” and “We Once Held Hands”. You can still hear flashes of
Curnin’s old style from time to time, but instead of possibly
sounding like a retro act, Curnin’s vocals are as smooth as water
running in a stream.
Even the music featured on
Elemental dares to put the past glories aside and try to
succeed or fail on its own. Again, for the old-school fan of The
Fixx, it takes a little time to adjust to, but the adjustment ends
up to be a pleasant one. “You Know Me” , “Silent House” and “Fatal
Shore” all are some of the highlights of the songwriting.
But where
Elemental falls a bit short is that it does have a tentative
feel to it. Granted, one couldn’t blame Curnin and crew if they
were a bit apprehensive going into this album. It had been years
since they had a hit and since they had been in the spotlight.
(Last I heard from a VH-1 special, Curnin was making hats for a
living.) Still, it surprised me that some of the music didn’t sound
as confident as it could have been. Does that make it bad? Not at
all – but it does suggest that there may not have been total faith
in this project.
What is a shame for The Fixx is that
Elemental didn’t generate the kind of attention that it
could have. Maybe it was due to listener apathy, maybe it was
because radio didn’t grab anything off this album and play it to
death. Whatever the case,
Elemental is, for the most part, a decent listen that is
well worth your time and attention.