Back in the ’80s, The Fixx were considered one of the top
\nNew Wave artists of their time. Tracks like “One Thing Leads To
\nAnother,” “Saved By Zero” and “Are We Ourselves?” are still heard
\non the radio from time to time today. But something happened later
\nin the ’80s: the public’s ever-fickle tastes changed, and Cy Curnin
\nand crew were left on the side of the musical highway.<\/p>\n
Despite this, The Fixx have always maintained a decent level of
\ninterest, enough to bring forth their reunion disc
\nElemental<\/i> last year. (We reviewed it thanks to Jeff Dinkins;
\nI still owe Jeff a disc in return.) Now, Curnin and company look
\nback on their career by moving their old favorites into the new
\nmillenium with
\n1011 Woodland<\/i>.<\/p>\n
In one sense, I questioned why the band didn’t just record a
\nfull live album to accomplish the same means, but I guess that’s
\nwhat the album
\nReact<\/i> was for. In another sense, I wondered how they could
\nrevive interest in some of these songs by recording new versions of
\nthem. But even for the diehard fan who probably knows the lyrics to
\neach song, this disc is a nice treasure trove – even if it is less
\nrock and more contemporary sounding.<\/p>\n
The band – vocalist Curnin, guitarist Jamie West-Oram,
\nkeyboardist Rupert Greenall, bassist Chris Tait and drummer Adam
\nWoods – seems to recognize that they are treading on holy ground by
\ndaring to remake tracks like “Saved By Zero” and “One Thing Leads
\nTo Another,” but they also realize that music changes with the
\npassage of time, and they were eager to share these new snapshots
\nwith their fans.<\/p>\n
Now, I don’t claim to be a whiz-kid when it comes to The Fixx; I
\nhave a few of their albums in the Pierce Memorial Archives, but I’m
\nnot well-schooled in them. So,
\n1011 Woodland<\/i> is like taking in a big gulp of fresh air to
\nme; the diehard fans might occasionally feel otherwise.<\/p>\n
The Fixx draw heavily on the first three albums of their career,
\nwhich also matches the height of their popularity. Tracks like
\n“Cameras In Paris,” “Stand Or Fall” and “Red Skies” (all originally
\non
\nShuttered Room<\/i>) sound like new life was poured into them,
\nand the more gentle musical touch – not as keyboard heavy – seems
\nto make all the difference. It doesn’t work as well on tracks like
\n“Saved By Zero” and “One Thing Leads To Another” (both off
\nReach The Beach<\/i>), but neither track is horribly changed. (I
\ndo wonder, though, why The Fixx ignored some of their better-known
\nsongs from
\nPhantoms<\/i>, like “Are We Ourselves?”, “Sunshine In The Shade”
\nand “Less Cities, More Moving People”. I mean, they had the room,
\nwith the second disc clocking in at just over 35 minutes.)<\/p>\n
But there is enough variety on
\n1011 Woodland<\/i> to keep even the diehard fans’ ears tuned in
\nfor each twist and turn. They even made me interested in listening
\nto
\nInk<\/i> again, though the last time I listened to it while I was
\nin college radio, I hated it. (The versions of “One Jungle” and
\n“Still Around” are quite good.) Only
\nWalkabout<\/i> seems to get the short end of the stick, having
\nonly one song – “Secret Separation” – culled from it.
\nElemental<\/i>, their last release, even gets one song on this
\ndisc.<\/p>\n
\n1011 Woodland<\/i> is really not meant to be a greatest hits
\npackage; there are enough of those on the marketplace to saturate
\nthat need. Nor is it meant to be a live album, another hole plugged
\nby
\nReact<\/i> and a session from the King Biscuit Flower Hour.
\nInstead, it is meant to be the portrait of a band looking back over
\nthe course of 20 years and seeing what contributions they have made
\nto the musical scenery. What
\n1011 Woodland<\/i> suggests is that they made more of a mark on
\nthe land than most music fans would admit to these days.<\/p>\n
While
\nElemental<\/i> was a decent effort,
\n1011 Woodland<\/i> is definitely the album that has rekindled my
\ninterest in this British band. Chances are, if you give this
\ntwo-disc set a shot, you’ll experience the same awakening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6261],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39102","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-fixx","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39102"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}