After completing three Robin Gibb
solo albums between 1983 and 1985,
Maurice and Robin Gibb turned their
attentions to a young Swedish singer
called Carola, little known outside
of her own country. It is
significant that, other than the
fact that it wasn't Robin Gibb on
lead vocals, it was generally
business as usual for the two
brothers who, in common with the
previous albums, would co-write most
of the songs with Maurice taking the
production reins.
Maurice and Robin seem to have a
talent for ensuring that each new
album that they produced in this
creative period in their careers was
always very different from the
previous album. The romantic synth-pop
of the
How Old Are You album became
the techno-pop of
Secret Agent which
itself morphed into the softer
pop/rock sound of
Walls Have Eyes.
With Runaway, Maurice and Robin
moved into the Euro-zone, with an
electronic, but often very sultry
album, making the best use of Carola's powerful voice.
If you can get past the slightly
dated 1980s production (and this
isn't really a criticism - Maurice
was experimenting with a truly
contemporary sound), this is an
album you will enjoy, and it stands
up to repeated listens very well.
The first single, 'The Runaway', is
a hugely catchy track to a stomping
synthesized back beat, with a loud,
uplifting chorus. The follow-up
single, 'Brand New Heart', is almost
as good, a soft, melodic ballad with
nice backing vocals from Robin and
Maurice. Another stand-out track,
again with very noticeable Robin and
Maurice backing vocals, is 'Nature
of the Beast', an infectious song
you will be humming all day. 'Spread
Your Wings (For Your Love)' has a
very dominant Maurice Gibb vocal,
which is almost a lead vocal on the
chorus, again a simple, but
nonetheless catchy pop song. Several
of the other Robin and Maurice
composed tracks, however, are less
memorable, and perhaps rely too much
on loud instrumentation, thumping
drum beats and loud vocals:
'Radiate', '(We Are) Atomic' and
'Everlasting Love' (not to be
confused with the superior Andy Gibb
hit 'An Everlasting Love') fall into
this category, but are still
genuinely enjoyable songs.
Two of the songs were co-written by
Barry Gibb, and these are both
excellent cuts. 'Lost In The Crowd'
is a beautifully constructed, sad
love song, that would not be out of
place on a Bee Gees album. But
perhaps the best track of all is the
phenomenal 'When Two Worlds
Collide', which has all three Gibb
brothers writing at their best, an
up-tempo track with a killer chorus.
Sadly, this rather good album was
not released outside Sweden, Norway
and West Germany. It was
certainly advertised as a
forthcoming release in the United
Kingdom - rumours at the time
suggested that Carola decided to
leave the pop world and moved
heavily into religion, resulting in
the future promotion of the album
being shelved. Whether that had
anything to do with its
non-appearance in major markets
will perhaps never be known, and Carola certainly returned to pop
music shortly after, even winning
the Eurovision Song Contest in 1991.
Nevertheless, this is a fine album,
and one that concluded an
artistically high quality run of
four albums for the Gibb twins. On
completing this album, Robin and
Maurice would rejoin Barry as they
commenced work on what would be the
first full Bee Gees album for six
years...sadly, Robin and Maurice
would never produce an album
together again. That is a big shame.
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Where to Buy
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