This Is Where I Came In – Christopher Thelen

This Is Where I Came In is not your typical Bee Gees
album… but, then again, what exactly defines a “typical” Bee Gees
album?

After all, this is the same group of Australian-bred brothers –
Barry, Maurice and Robin – who were singing songs like “I Started A
Joke” and “To Love Somebody” in the ’60s, then became the
unofficial ambassadors of disco music thanks to their contributions
to
Saturday Night Fever. This is the same band who just missed
the brass ring of success with their
Still Waters album. The truth be told, there
is no such animal as a typical Bee Gees album.

This doesn’t mean that the brothers Gibb don’t enjoy throwing
the listener curve balls throughout the 12 cuts on
This Is Where I Came In… that is, besides keeping track of
which Gibb brother is handling the lead vocals on a specific track.
If anything, this album is slightly underproduced, keeping a
minimalistic sound which challenges the listener to accept the
music as it is, without a single preconceived notion.

Does it work? More often than not, the answer is “yes”. From the
gentle syncopation of “Man In The Middle” (which makes great use of
the minimalistic style, as well as Maurice Gibb’s understated
vocals) to the syrupy-sweet yet touching romanticism of “Wedding
Day,” the listener can’t help but be hooked in by these tracks.
(Damn you, Bee Gees, for “Wedding Day”… just when I thought I had
cried myself out at my cousin’s wedding two months ago.)

Admittedly, it takes a little time for the motor on
This Is Where I Came In to get to idling stage. The title
track does challenge the listener – possibly even a little too
early into the album, while “She Keeps On Coming” never really hits
full steam creatively. In a similar vein, “Voice In The Wilderness”
seems like an attempt to get a song with a danceable beat onto the
album in some manner, and doesn’t really fit in with the general
atmosphere.

Yet
This Is Where I Came In, if given a chance by the fickle
music-buying public, could be the disc to remind people that the
Bee Gees are, first and foremost, a group of songwriters – and
damned good ones at that. Tracks such as “Walking On Air,” “Deja
Vu” and “Loose Talk Costs Lives” all show that over three decades
in the business have only served to sharpen the creative pencils of
the Gibbs. Even “Technicolor Dreams,” delivered in a Vaudeville
style, is a lot of fun to listen to, making it seem like the Bee
Gees had fun creating this album.

This Is Where I Came In is the kind of disc that could turn
a whole new generation of listeners on to the Bee Gees’s music –
and if people put aside their musical prejudices for the length of
time it takes to listen to this disc, they might re-discover what a
wonderful group the Bee Gees really are.