Published on May 7, 2000
If I had been active in the music industry in 1983, I don’t
think I would have wanted to trade places with Christopher Cross
for anything in the world. Here’s a guy who had just come off
stellar success with his debut album, winning five Grammys for his
work. He was almost constantly on the radio with songs like “Ride
Like The Wind” and “Sailing”. If this wasn’t enough, he won an
Academy Award for his contribution to the film
Arthur.
Oh, sure, it all sounds great on paper (okay, computer screen…
whatever…). But when it came time for Cross to work on his second
album, the pressure that had to be on him to deliver surely was
intense. Screw the “sophomore slump” I keep talking about; Cross
would probably have to serve up Jesus himself as a backing vocalist
to live up to people’s expectations.
That album,
Another Page, was seen as a commercial disappointment, even
though it sold (if I remember my numbers correctly) about 3 million
copies. Artistically, while this album has some classic songs (and
I’m not just talking about the ones that got radio play), it is
indeed lacking. I’m stopping short of calling the album
disappointing, ’cause it’s by no means a failure… but it seemed
like Cross ran out of gas.
The two hits off
Another Page still sound fresh – one track, “Think Of
Laura,” actually sounds more in its environment now that you don’t
hear it played every five minutes or tied to
General Hospital. (For the record, the song was written
about a deceased friend of Cross’s, not for the television soap. It
was coincidence that the whole “Luke & Laura” thing was going
on at that time.) Now that I’ve had the chance to hear the words of
the song without mentally tieing the song to anything, I’ve got to
admit: the lyrics are some of the most powerful and emotional I’ve
heard in some time. If there’s a way to be immortalized by song,
this isn’t a bad example at all.
The other track, “All Right,” sounds like it could have been a
leftover from the
Christopher Cross sessions, right down to the appearance of
Michael McDonald (who also guested on the first album). It’s not a
bad track, though I’ll freely admit it’s a little more lightweight
than the singles from
Christopher Cross. But it’s an enjoyable track, so I’m
willing to cut it a little slack.
There are some pleasant surprises awaiting you on
Another Page. Tracks like “No Time For Talk” (which has
subtle ties to “Ride Like The Wind”), “Deal ‘Em Again” and “Talking
In My Sleep” show that sometimes the brightest nuggets of gold
aren’t the ones that get the airplay.
There are two distinct problems with
Another Page, though. First, I tend to think that Cross
relies on guest musicians too much on this album. Granted,
sometimes you might not catch their presence unless you’re reading
the liner notes. But I tend to think that the material would have
stood on its own just as well without overreliance on Don Henley,
Art Garfunkel, J.D. Souther, Karla Bonoff… and even McDonald.
It’s almost like he’s brought back as a “good luck charm” for this
disc. (Admittedly, his contribution to “All Right” I liked.)
Second, the songwriting on this disc, in general, is kind of
uninspired and lackluster. “Baby Says No,” a track with Beach Boy
Carl Wilson, probably should have been the highlight of this disc;
instead, it tends to drag and doesn’t really allow the listener to
get into it. The same could be said for songs like “Nature Of The
Game,” “Words Of Wisdom” and “What Am I Supposed To Believe”.
They’re okay as background music, but there’s really not a lot of
substance to them.
I admit I’m kind of walking on eggshells a bit, seeing this is
the first output from Cross I’ve heard that I was disappointed in.
But I think that no matter what he had put out, people were going
to see the negative in it. (These days, we call this “Hootie And
The Blowfish” syndrome.) Even if Cross had met people’s
expectations, that would have caused listeners to raise the bar
even higher for the next outing… and that would have been a
damned impossible feat to accomplish. So, in a way, maybe it’s good
that Cross got this out of his system, and forced people to throw
away their expectations and take future releases at face value.
Another Page is by no means a bad album, and still has signs
of why Cross became such a star in the early ’80s. But it did
represent a step backward for him. Whether it was his own personal
circumstances or expectations shoving him backward, I don’t quite
know.