I was quite a fan of Kim Wilde for the space of about two albums...the eponymous debut and 'Select'. The further she headed into mainstream pop the less interested I became. Somewhere around 25 years after her first album, she has re-emerged (from the potting shed where she wrote books and articles on gardening.) Her new single 'Perfect Girl' harkens back to her best early work. Catchy sing along chorus, a bit of techno synthesier, some suprisingly edgy crunching distorted guitar, big beat drums and the voice. It's all good happy fun and a joy from start to finish (were you expecting Joy Division?) Kim's voice is in great shape and the song bounces along like her classic edgy new wave-pop hits of old (think Chequered Love). It's as if the middling pop/funk/dance/nrg detours that she took after the first two albums never happened. It's been more then 20 years since she sounded this good. The vibe is very 80's, in the best ways. This is top notch stuff and makes me quite curious about the forthcoming cd. Good heavens, has it really been almost 25 years? Welcome back Kim! By the way, the video is available on Kim's website.
as soon as I saw the word "elektrika" in the name of one of the mixes on this disc, I was thrilled, anticipating a slamming electro dance mix of this hot chick rocker from Kim's latest CD--and I was also disappointed to see it was called the Ian Finch Elektrika EDIT. I was sure I was going to love it and want the full length mix. Instead, I was treated to a boring mix that didn't try to hard to bring any energy to the track, stripping all the original power of the song and vocals. It's simply a heavy, slowed down beat from the original tempo, with a very minimal amount of instrumentation to back it up. And the beat drops out for quite a while, leaving us with just kim's voice and a sustained synth--which is exactly what the "perfect chill mix" is from start to finish. After that, the only other thing you get on here is an acoustic live version of european soul.
So, unless you are a Kim completist like myself, I'd just stick to the album version--and the entire full length CD for that matter, because it is electro retro goodness from start to finish.
