Catch As Catch Can

Kim Wilde's third album was never released in the U.S. -- EMI America had dropped the singer after 1982's career high point, Select, didn't spawn any hits -- which is a shame since this admittedly uneven album is a key transition point in her career. Catch as Catch Can is probably Wilde's most experimental album, a continuation of the dark-hued synth rock feel of Select with hints of the more commercial dance-pop sound that would characterize the rest of her career. Certainly the first single, the gimmicky, campy strut "Love Blonde," is the oddest single of Wilde's career. Elsewhere, the genuinely beautiful ballad "Can You Hear It" (probably the prettiest song Wilde ever recorded), "Sparks," and the quirky "Dream Sequence" have an atmospheric, nearly psychedelic tinge, thanks to hazy backing vocals and diffused, dreamy arrangements. However, other songs like the opening "House of Salome" and the stuttering "Back Street Joe" point toward the purely electronic Hi-NRG disco sound that would characterize 1984's Teases & Dares, and indeed pretty much every Kim Wilde release thereafter. [The 2009 edition added five bonus tracks including a remix of "Dancing in the Dark" by Nile Rodgers.] ~ Stewart Mason|