— Chris Heath
Blimey, 1990 was off to a slow start. The decade has so far seen some awfully poor Singles of the Fortnight but at least the charts were every bit as subpar. Christmas number one holdover "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid II was the first chart topper of the year and it was followed by the equally awful "Hangin' Tough" by New Kids on the Block. Next was Kylie Minogue's very unremarkable version of Little Anthony & The Imperials "Tears on My Pillow", which was better than its number one successors but not much. It lasted just a week on top and was replaced by a single so brilliant that it ended up turning the whole year around.
Unfortunately, Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" ended up being passed over for a Smash Hits SOTF even though it was a bona fide Single of the Decade for a ten year period that was just two months' old. Scan old issues of ver Hits from the time and you'll discover that not only was it not reviewed but it wasn't even included in the Also Released This Fortnight consolation category. And yet, it still spent four weeks at number one and ended up being a worldwide smash — and it has aged beautifully even if the rest of us haven't.
Less endearing today is Chris Heath's pick for this issue's SOTF, "Here We Are" by Gloria Estefan. He admits this isn't exactly the strongest batch of new releases so his choice is by default. His write up isn't even glowing with his nibs using an awful lot of 'as usuals'. And who can blame him? Gloria and her longstanding Miami Sound Machine — whether acknowledged or not they were still present — crew had long since settled on a formula of going back-and-forth between slushy love songs and dancefloor numbers about how the best thing one can do is get on that dancefloor pronto.
Critic Tom Breihan has described Estefan as "America's most successful wedding singer" and it's hard to disagree. "Anything for You", "Can't Stay Away From You" and "Don't Wanna Lose You" are just the sort of songs You might want to have Your first dance to with Your new spouse (no one I know personally, mind you); the likes of "Conga", "1-2-3" and "Get on Your Feet" could all encourage grannies and kiddies and friends of your parents to get dancing while everyone else goes straight to the open bar.
"Here We Are" was the third single from Estefan's first solo album Cuts Both Ways. Torch song "Don't Wanna Lose You" came out first in the summer of 1989 and it was followed by the uptempo "Get on Your Feet" in the US and "Oye Mi Canto" in Britain. So far, so adequate. None of these songs was about to blow anyone away but they were all sturdy enough records that weren't about to get people running from the room in terror. For the most part, the album as a whole was quite good too. Predecessor LP Anything for You (known as Let It Loose in North America) may have had the stronger singles (I still like "1-2-3") but Cuts Both Ways was the stronger record from top to bottom. The three singles spread over various territories amounted to the decent material that could be siphoned off Estefan's album but such thinking never occurred to record company execs.
It was vastly inferior to "Don't Wanna Lose You" but you could always rely on a gloopy Gloria number to be a big hit, though not for much longer. "Here We Are" did well in the US but people were beginning to tire of all these so-called ballads that all sounded the same. Anything for You had been a slow burn in the UK and it's four singles did well on the back of it; Cuts Both Ways sold really well right away and its 45's suffered as a result. A year earlier "Here We Are" might've been a Top 10 hit but in 1990 it drifted around the lower half of the Top 40 for a month and was quickly forgotten about. Even the news that she'd been seriously injured when her tour bus got crushed on March 20 couldn't save this very ordinary recording.
Estefan recuperated from spinal surgery over the next year and the world seemed to move on. I had started 1990 off by playing Cuts Both Ways to death but the Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode and Madchester taken over and by the end of the year I had outgrown this music that was so painfully adult. I wasn't terribly impressed by her 1991 comeback "Coming Out of the Dark" and I'm not so sure it was just because I had moved on. It was too inspirational and too calculated. I would later have my own brush with death in 2002 and I listened a lot to Stevie Wonder's Fulfillingness' First Finale at that time. An account of dealing with his own mortality, it was (and remains) poignant and relatable. Listening to it made me think of how poorly Gloria Estefan handled such weighty material. We all got sick of her because her stuff all sounded the same but then we wanted her to go back to sounding the same when she tried to be serious. Some people just can't win.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
The Railway Children: "Every Beat of the Heart"
The one Heath ought to have picked. He likes it for the most part but then dampens his praise by stating that the tune is "nicked from an old New Order song". That might well be true but I find it's just generally inspired by NO, not cribbed from one number in particular. The bass part is straight out of the Peter Hook Book of Bass Playing for Lead Guitarists but much of the rest is just good old, highly irresistible jangle pop. Heath also mentions Del Amitri as a not dissimilar group but I'll take the melancholy of lead Railway Child Gary Newby any day. Proof of what a sucker I am for depressing songs that also manage to be uplifting. A superb single then, now and always — and a sign that sweet indie pop was back (BACK!!).
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