Shortly before Denise Henderson left the review panel of “The
\nDaily Vault,” we got to talking about upcoming releases. I
\nmentioned that I read on CMC International’s Web site there was
\ngoing to be a new release from Christopher Cross. Her response to
\nme was, “Oh,
\nhe’s<\/i> still around?”<\/p>\n
Fact is, Cross never left – he just dropped off the radio radar
\nafter hits like “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” and “Think
\nOf Laura” in the first half of the ’80s. Musical tastes, always a
\nfickle thing, did a 180 degree turn from the gentle type of music
\nthat Cross was creating. This, combined with the fact that Cross
\ndecided to write songs from the heart and not meant to hit the top
\nof the charts, almost spelled career suicide. (The last many people
\nheard of him was when he wrote a song that was used on the TV show
\nGrowing Pains<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
But the ’90s are a decade of once-forgotten musicians to come
\nout of the gates swinging, and Cross does so with
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i>, a two-disc set combining both new studio
\nwork and a live show which wraps up Cross’s career to that point.
\nAnd both are done remarkably well.<\/p>\n
Whether Cross is writing songs that are meant to hit the charts
\nor not, the music on the studio portion of this disc is some of the
\nbest I’ve heard from him ever. The first single, “When She Smiles,”
\nis a Cinderella-type story for the ’90s (complete with its
\nreference to Starbucks) that is a catchy, heart-warming number
\nthat, given the right breaks, should be a major hit on the AC
\ncharts. (Here’s hoping some radio programmers grow a set of balls –
\nyeah, you know who you are – and actually give this song and album
\na chance.) The title track, another wonderful love song, shows how
\noil-and-water couples can find common ground and co-exist together
\n(“It’s cool that I like John and you like Paul” is one sample
\nlyric).<\/p>\n
But not all on
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i> is all smiles. On “Hunger,” Cross sings
\nabout the loss of a lover, and the hesitation one feels when faced
\nwith the possibility of finding this person again (“I’m scared that
\nI’ll find you \/ I’m scared even more I never will”). The approach
\ntaken on this song is both spooky and enthralling.<\/p>\n
The pop anthems just roll off the disc faster than you can keep
\ntrack. “It’s Always Something” might seem a little corny at the
\nstart, but it quickly turns itself into a poerful song with an
\ninfectious chorus. Likewise, “Kind Of I Love You” is another track
\nthat could equal some of the biggest success Cross has had in his
\ncareer, if only the fates align for him.<\/p>\n
The second half of
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i> is the equivalent of a “greatest-hits
\nlive” package – but seeing it’s been well over a decade since Cross
\nhad major success on the airwaves, this will most likely serve as
\nan introduction of his past catalog to new listeners. The show does
\none thing that’s the hardest to do on live albums: it captures a
\nlot of the magic that the actual live performance created. (This
\ndoesn’t mean I wouldn’t mind seeing a video of this concert come
\nout soon – the people at Best Buy are beginning to forget what I
\nlook like.)<\/p>\n
The older songs that made Cross a household name for a while,
\nsuch as “Ride Like The Wind,” “Sailing” and “Arthur’s Theme (Best
\nThat You Can Do),” have lost none of their magic, and have even
\nbecome better thanks to the fact that you rarely hear these cuts
\nanymore. The old saying is true: absence
\ndoes<\/i> make the heart grow fonder. It’s wonderful to hear
\nthese songs again, performed almost exactly the way I remember
\nthem. (Even Michael McDonald returns to add harmony vocals to “Ride
\nLike The Wind”.)<\/p>\n
Of all these songs, two stand out in my mind. “Think Of Laura,”
\nto be honest, was a puke-and-gag song when I was a teenager, simply
\nbecause it was used in conjunction with a soap opera. In fact, the
\nsong was written for a friend of Cross’s who died far too young. In
\nthis context, and over a decade removed from its glory days, the
\nsong becomes one of Cross’s most beautiful works ever. The other
\nsong, “Deputy Dan,” is an autobiographical song about Cross’s
\nchosen career path and, as he called it, the “fifteen minutes of
\nfame” he experienced. (Somehow, I don’t think that Cross is bitter
\nthat he didn’t remain a big name all this time; it’s given him a
\nchance to succeed on his own terms.)<\/p>\n
Admittedly, I was a little skeptical about Cross’s work in 1998
\nwhen I first heard about
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i> (I’m a rock critic; it’s my job to assume
\nthere are grey clouds behind silver linings). But this album
\ncaptures all the magic that Cross created in 1981 and freshly
\nreworks it for today. The biggest drawback he’s going to have is
\naudience apathy… though I think that would disappear faster than
\na plate of pasta in front of Dom DeLuise once people hear the
\nmusic.<\/p>\n
Cross once owned the airwaves with his own style of pop music.
\nIf radio gives
\nWalking In Avalon<\/i> a fair shot on the air (you know what that
\nmeans, kids… call your favorite station and demand they play the
\ndamn thing), and people listen to the album with an open mind,
\nthey’ll discover the same thing I did. Even if Cross has been
\naround all this time, he’s definitely a front runner for Comeback
\nOf The Year with this album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6254],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39173","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-christopher-cross","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39173","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=39173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39173"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}