Oh this is going to be fun. I have three records here all coming up on the basically alphabetic format I have pioneered (which means they are in alphabetical order except when I decide they are not.)
They are essentially one-hit wonders, this trio of bands I’m lumping together. And their names start with’M.’ And they are sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes silly as heck. Bargain bin material for sure.
Men Without Hats –343
ALBUM: Rhythm of Youth (1982)
MVC Rating: 2.0/$
Canadian group hit it big with the Safety Dance featuring a bubbly 1980’s synth dance beat:
‘We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind, because your friends don’t dance, and if they don’t dance, they ain’t no friends of mine.”
Probably everybody in the world has danced to this song. And probably everybody in the world has this record which sits and never gets played unless you put it on a 1980’s synth-dance music playlist. The only other song that captured my attention was
‘I Got the Message.‘
Mr Big — 344
ALBUM: Photographic Smile (1976)
MVC Rating: 2.5/$$
This is a strange group and album. Not to be confused with the LA-based Mr. Big which was even bigger. This UK-based Big’s only significant hit was ‘Romeo although ‘Feel Like Calling Home sounds like a single for the radio. The singer sounds and looks like the bad gang member leader who set the Warriors up in the Walter Hill movie The Warriors. ‘Warriors come out and Plaa-ay, clink clink go the bottles on his fingertips. i checked the liner to see if this cat “Dicken” was listed as playing bottles. Nope. Dicken (just DIcken) is the vocalists name and he seems to be a known entity in some corners of the UK music scene or at least was at one time.
The album ‘Photographic Smile’ is all over the place from hard heavy rock with Brian May-like guitar solos to lilting folk ballads to songs with a sprinkling of Chinese pentatonic musical touches. The title song sounds like 10cc.
There’s talent with songwriting musical hooks and musicianship, but it’s somewhat negated by the wild swing in the music and mediocre to poor lyrics. Still, some of these songs have hooks that catch and stick.
Mouth and MacNeal — 345
ALBUM: How Do You Do
MVC Rating: 2.5/$
Well ‘How Do You Do’. Talking about hooks that catch and stick. The one hit from this group is one of those earworms. Now we had a little fun with Mouth and MacNeal earlier in this blog, naming the song ‘How Do you Do’ the Best Worst song of All Time.” I have to say we were heavily influenced by an old black and white video that was so amateurish, it was hilarious.
On record M&M sound OK. The Mouth, a big bear of a man, has a voice that could make beams fall at a construction site. They put their spin on “Heard it Through the Grapevine,” which is inferior to CCR’s or Marvin Gaye’s version — but not altogether bad.
Try this Mouth and MacNeal for something different::