Back in the early ’80s, I think that Men At Work was the first
\nrock group I ever got seriously into. That was the summer the
\nairwaves were flooded with “Down Under,” “Who Can It Be Now?” and
\n“Be Good Johnny”. When I received a stereo that I won in a contest
\nwith the Cub Scouts, the first albums I bought were
\nBusiness As Usual<\/i> and their then-new release
\nCargo<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But just as suddenly as Colin Hay and crew hit the top, they
\nspiraled to the bottom. After a lengthy hiatus, the band (minus
\nsome of their key members) released their final album,
\nTwo Hearts<\/i>, which was a major disappointment to me.<\/p>\n
Now, 11 years after that album, Hay and former bandmate Greg Ham
\nreturn with
\nBrazil<\/i>, Men At Work’s first live album. And while the full
\noriginal band is still missed and the voices sound older, the songs
\nremain a guilty pleasure for me.<\/p>\n
Recorded in Brazil during Men At Work’s 1996 tour,
\nBrazil<\/i> takes a good portion of the catalog that even the
\n“passing fancy” fans would recognize and powers right through them,
\nkeeping the overall sound of the songs intact. While they might not
\nhave the polish that their studio counterparts do, the execution of
\nthe songs is close enough to the real thing for the older fans.<\/p>\n
Hay’s voice isn’t strong enough to hold some of the notes that
\nhe used to belt out, but it still sounds very much the same. Ham’s
\nmulti-instrument work is simply incredible; when you realize he
\nplayed saxophone, flute, keyboards, guitar and harmonica –
\nand<\/i> sang “Helpless Automaton” – you realize what a key
\nmember of Men At Work he was back in their glory days, and his
\ncontributions are that much more special now.<\/p>\n
And while the backing band (guitarist Simon Hosford, bssist
\nStephen Hadley and drummer John Watson) do a fine job, the sad fact
\nis the sound does lose something without the original band being
\ntogether. (One wonders if there was still bad blood between the
\nband members – the same that caused Jerry Speiser and John Rees to
\nleave in 1984.)<\/p>\n
When it comes to the hits,
\nBrazil<\/i> succeeds. Cuts like “Overkill,” “Who Can It Be Now?”,
\n“Everything I Need,” “It’s A Mistake” and “Be Good Johnny” all
\nstill shine, even if some of the stuff (like the bridge “rap” on
\n“Be Good Johnny”) is a tad cornball. (For sheer cornball, check out
\n“Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive,” the only song of theirs I honestly
\ncould never stand.) The smash hit “Down Under” is here as well,
\nthough I would question if they really needed to stretch out the
\nlead section of the song.<\/p>\n
Curiously, many of the tracks on
\nBrazil<\/i> are ones that only the fans would know – the same
\nones (like me) who damn near wore out their copies of the albums.
\nOf these tracks, “Underground” and “Down By The Sea” are excellent,
\nand “Helpless Automaton” (always a favorite of mine) is one that
\nabsolutely must be heard. Others, like “Catch A Star” and “Touching
\nThe Untouchables,” just don’t go anywhere. Still, they could have
\ndone worse – such as “Settle Down, My Boy” or “Highwire”.<\/p>\n
The one new studio track (featuring Tony Floyd on drums), “The
\nLongest Night,” is evidence enough that Men At Work are still a
\npowerful band who can write decent pop-based music. It might be a
\nfar cry from their glory days, but it still holds its own weight
\namong the hits.<\/p>\n
So, the question must be asked: Will anyone still care about Men
\nAt Work and
\nBrazil<\/i>? That has yet to be seen, but it should stir up some
\ninterest with the same people who bought the albums back in the
\n’80s. I’ll be honest, it’s been a long, long time since I pulled
\nany of these out of the Pierce Archives and gave them a spin.
\nHowever,
\nBrazil<\/i> has made me curious about them again, and I’ll
\nprobably be checking my beat-to-hell copies out again very soon. I
\nwould tend to think that this disc would have the same effect on
\npeople my age.<\/p>\n
\nBrazil<\/i> is by no means a retro-packaging of a band well past
\nits glory days. Hay, Ham and crew still have enough freshness and
\nenergy in their sound to convince anyone that they’re planning on
\nhanging around for a while. And even through the few potholes on
\nthis disc, my thought is: “Welcome back!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6006],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39323","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-men-at-work","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39323","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=39323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39323"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39323"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}