Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Video: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Mike + The Mechanics
Label: Virgin Records
Release: 2014
Rating: 4.5/5
»The Singles 1985-2014« collects all the singles so far, plus a few rarities, from the rich career of British pop act Mike + The Mechanics. It’ll be of interest to longtime fans, and to anyone just getting to know them up close. Mike + The Mechanics were born as a side project of Genesis bassist and guitarist Mike Rutherford. When he formed his own band in 1985, he never dreamed he’d be racking up chart-toppers with The Mechanics as if it were nothing, even though he was already used to unexpected commercial success with his ‘mother’ band. This progressive rock pioneer, who had always sworn by his Rickenbacker bass, became a true pop rock champion in the eighties, and one of the few to churn out hits with two different groups.
Rutherford’s solo career, apart from the song »Maxine« from »Acting Very Strange« (1982), which got a decent chart placing in Canada, didn’t bring any noticeable commercial success. Still, his debut, »Smallcreep’s Day« (1979), on which he worked with singer Noel McCalla (ex-Manfred Mann’s Earthband), is still highly prized among art rock gourmets today. Rutherford had always claimed that, as a songwriter, he had a hard time on his own and liked working best in an equal musical collective. So the birth of his solo group Mike + The Mechanics was undoubtedly a special challenge for him, after he’d already been ready to throw in the towel following his first two solo attempts.
In how it worked, Mike’s band was a lot like the cult Americans Steely Dan, meaning that four regular members were joined by a whole string of great guest musicians. After »Acting Very Strange«, which was dragged down by his own weak singing, Rutherford quickly realized that he badly needed a quality vocalist for any kind of bigger success. In the end he found not one but two superb singers: Paul Carrack (ex-Warm Dust, Ace and Roxy Music) and Paul Young (ex-Sad Café). While multi-instrumentalist Carrack, who took on a growing role in the band as a songwriter especially in later years, mostly sang the AOR ballads, Young, sadly no longer with us, handled the punchier rockers. The original band was rounded out by keyboardist Adrian Lee and drummer Peter Van Hooke.
The hits started raining down from the very first album, »Mike + The Mechanics« (1985). Successes like »Silent Running (On Dangerous Grund)«, »All I Need Is A Miracle« »The Living Years«, »Word of Mouth«, »Over My Shoulder«, »A Beggar On a Beach of Gold«, »Now That You’ve Gone«, »Taken In«, »Nobody’s Perfect« and the rest all landed resounding chart positions on both sides of the Atlantic. With their take on sophisticated pop rock, marked by an extremely intelligent songwriting ethos and plenty of subtle arrangements, Mike + The Mechanics have been delighting music connoisseurs since the mid-eighties. Back when Genesis were mutating into a pop rock act, Rutherford had already developed an exceptional knack for writing pop rock hits, and later he had strong backing in Carrack too.
Mike wrote their first Mechanics hit, »Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)«, which appears on this release with a slightly different intro (fade in), together with Scottish musician B.A. Robertson, while »All I Need Is A Miracle« (the 1996 version of the hit is included here) and »Taken In« came out of his songwriting partnership with producer Christopher Neil. In 1988, Rutherford and Robertson wrote the gorgeous power ballad »The Living Years«, which came out on the album of the same name and is one of the loveliest tributes to a late father in the history of popular music. The second and third singles from that studio classic, »Nobody’s Perfect in »Seeing Is Believing«, also became evergreens.
Interestingly, Mike + The Mechanics were one of the few eighties pop rock acts to keep the commercial success going into the nineties, and they’d probably have held on to that fascinating streak right up to today, with every album throwing off at least one hit, if Young’s death in 2000 hadn’t hit them. The album »Word of Mouth« (1991) delivered the hit single of the same name, written in renewed collaboration with Neil, while »Everybody Gets a Second Chance« and »A Time and Place« became smaller hits. After the fourth album, »Beggar On the Beach of Gold« (1995), which had three hits in the form of the title masterpiece, »Another Cup of Coffee« and »Over My Shoulder« (the latter could stylistically have landed on the Genesis album »Calling All Stations«, 1997), original keyboardist Lee (by then only an occasional member) and drummer Van Hooke left the band. They didn’t look for replacements on the next album, »Mike & the Mechanics« (1999), the last one with Young, but they still scored their final hit with the song »Now That You’ve Gone«.
Despite Young’s death in 2000, Rutherford and Carrack carried on after a short break and recorded the album »Rewired« in 2004, but it was the first Mike + The Mechanics release that didn’t throw off a single hit. Even though it was a solid pop rock effort, as the touching ballad »Perfect Child« shows, Rutherford wasn’t happy with the end result, so he didn’t lose much sleep when the long collaboration with the fantastic Carrack came to an end. After the short-lived reunion of the legendary Genesis, Mike finally decided in 2009 to revive The Mechanics, this time with a completely new lineup. The two new singers, Andrew Roachford and Tim Howar, proved to be ideal successors to the practically irreplaceable vocal masters Carrack and Young.
The new lineup, which recorded the album »The Road« (2011) together with returning (co-)producer and (co-)songwriter Christopher Neil, was rounded out by guitarist Anthony Drennan, keyboardist Luke Juby and drummer Gary Wallis, cousin of well-known guitarist Larry Wallis (Pink Fairies, ex-Motörhead). »The Road« didn’t bring any new hits, but it still had fascinating moments like »Reach Out (Touch The Sun)« and »Try To Save Me«. The extras on »The Singles 1985-2014«, which will interest all collectors of the Mike + The Mechanics legacy, are the brand-new song »When My Feet Don’t Touch the Ground«, an acoustic version of »My Crime of Passion«, a special remix of »Word of Mouth« and live versions of the evergreens »I Get the Feeling« and »Taken In«.
»The Singles 1985-2014« is a really nice cross-section of the glorious career of Mike and The Mechanics, who wrote themselves into pop rock history in golden letters. It’s far more than just a collection of every single so far — it’s a kind of chronicle of their ‘live years’. Unlike Genesis, who are very unlikely to ever play together again, Mike’s ‘mechanics’ are nowhere near saying their last word, so besides new concert tours, it’s entirely realistic to expect a new studio effort down the road too.
Lineup
Mike Rutherford – bass guitar, guitar
Paul Carrack – vocals, keyboards, guitar, drums
Paul Young – vocals, percussion
Adrian Lee – keyboards
Peter Van Hooke drums
Andrew Roachford – vocals
Tim Howar – vocals
Anthony Drennan – guitar
Luke Juby – keyboards
Gary Wallis – drums
Production
Mike + The Mechanics
Track List
CD1:
1. Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground)
2. All I Need Is a Miracle ’96
3. The Living Years
4. Word of Mouth
5. Over My Shoulder
6. A Beggar On a Beach of Gold
7. Another Cup of Coffee (single edit)
8. Now That You’ve Gone
9. Taken In
10. Nobody’s Perfect
11. Everybody Gets a Second Chance
12. Nobody Knows
13. Seeing Is Believing
14. A Time and Place
15. Whenever I Stop
16. Reach Out (Touch the Sun)
17. Try To Save Me
CD2:
1. When My Feet Don’t Touch the Ground (Exclusive New Track)
2. One By One
3. Nobody Told Me
4. I Think I’ve Got the Message
5. Too Many Friends
6. You Never Change
7. Always The Last to Know
8. You Don’t Know What Love Is
9. Boys At the Front
10. Perfect Child
11. My Crime of Passion (Acoustic Version)
12. Little Boy
13. Help Me
14. Revolution
15. I Got the Feeling (Live)
16. Taken In (Live)
17. Word of Mouth (East West Mix)
18. Too Far Gone
