Islands (Kajagoogoo album)

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Islands
Islands cover
Studio album by Kajagoogoo/Kaja
Released 1984 (LP/MC), 2004 (CD)
Genre New Wave, Pop rock, Jazz, Synthpop, Soul, Ballad
Length 39:36 (LP/MC), 69:55 (CD), 34:32 (Extra Play)
Label EMI
Producer Colin Thurston, Kajagoogoo/Kaja
Professional reviews
Kajagoogoo/Kaja chronology
White Feathers
(1983)		 Islands
(1984)		 Crazy Peoples Right to Speak
(1985)

Islands is British new wave/synthpop/rock band Kajagoogoo's second album, released in 1984, on EMI label. It was recorded without singer Limahl, who had left the band to pursue a solo career. Bass player Nick Beggs, already the group's main backing singer, took over lead vocal duties, also writing the lyrics, which he mostly used to co-write with ex-vocalist, though he had also authored a number of tracks on his own. The album was produced by the band themselves, now a four-piece group, along with Colin Thurston, who had also produced their debut, White Feathers, which was then co-produced by Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran, for whom Thurston mainly worked at the time.

The album did not sell as well as its predecessor, but made it to a respectable Number 35 in the UK Albums Chart. The album's three singles performed moderately well in the UK: "Big Apple" (Number 8), "The Lion's Mouth" (Number 25), and "Turn Your Back on Me" (Number 47).

In the U.S., where the album was titled Extra Play, and the band was called Kaja, it only reached Number 185 on the Billboard 200. On the U.S. edition, the version of "Turn Your Back on Me" was different from the original: it was remixed by the great couple (also of Duran Duran fame at the time) Steve Thompson and Michael Barbiero. The version was edited and mixed by Steve Thompson, with Michael Barbiero as remix engineer. The 'thai-figure' picture on the inner sleeve was created by Mick Karn, the bass player of Japan.

The original UK album was remastered and reissued, with seven bonus tracks, in 2004, after a first reunion of the original five-piece group (with Limahl and drummer Jez Strode, who left the band after the end of the promotion for the 1984 album, one year after Limahl, seemingly for the same reasons, related to writing commitments and royalties, though the issue was never clearly explained) for the U.S. TV programme Bands Reunited - in 2008, the band reunited definitively.

Contents

[edit] Critical acceptance

If the album was not very successful commercially on one side, it was critically acclaimed on the other, and today it is still considered as the best long playing work by the band, in any of their line-ups. Here is a quotation from a very positive review, taken from Amazon.com: Nick's Christian lyrics pop up more than once in songs like the brass-embellished "The Lion's Mouth" and the funky meditation of "The Power to Forgive." The album is apparently one huge jam session that turned into something really great for them on a creative level as they all collaborated together on every track, and Nick has written some of his finest songs yet. However, detractors were also there, and here's another quotation from a very negative review instead, this time taken from All Music Guide: There are no hooks. And (...) without hooks (...), Kajagoogoo's music just disappears into thin air. To put it in too much an abused phrase: the album, as any so-called critically acclaimed and commercially unsuccessful album, divided the critics.

[edit] Track listings

All tracks music written by Steve Askew/Nick Beggs/Stuart Neale/Jez Strode, lyrics by Nick Beggs.

[edit] Islands

  1. "The Lion's Mouth" – 3:34 (**)
  2. "Big Apple" – 4:09 (**)
  3. "The Power to Forgive" – 4:44 (**)
  4. "Melting the Ice Away" – 5:15 (**)
  5. "Turn Your Back on Me" – 4:00
  6. "Islands" – 4:50
  7. "On a Plane" – 4:13
  8. "Part of Me Is You" – 3:55
  9. "The Loop" – 4:38
  10. "Turn Your Back on Me (Thompson and Barbiero U.S. Mix)" – 3:56 (*)(**)
  11. "The Pump Rooms of Bath" – 2:31 (*)
  12. "The Garden" – 2:51 (*)
  13. "Monochromatic" (Live) – 4:08 (*)
  14. "Big Apple (Metro Mix)" – 6:05 (*)(**)
  15. "The Lion's Mouth (The Beast Mix)" – 5:37 (*)
  16. "Turn Your Back on Me (Extended Dance Mix)" – 5:03 (*)

Tracks marked with one asterisk (*) only appear on the 2004 remastered CD reissue.

The U.S. version of the album, promoted as Kaja, was called Extra Play and had a different track listing: tracks #1 to #4 (in different order, for which see below), and track #10 of the UK edition made Side 1 of the U.S. version, while track #5 U.S. remix (the one track not on the UK long playing work, either album or CD) and track #14 were on Side 2. All of these 7 tracks are marked by a double asterisk in parentheses (**) above here. A particular status had "Turn Your Back on Me", completely reworked and even re-remixed for the U.S. market: in fact, the so-called "Turn Your Back on Me (Flipped Disc Mix)" was only available Stateside. Either of this track and of the first single with Nick Beggs on lead vocals, "Big Apple", the American album featured two different versions each.

[edit] Extra Play

  1. "Turn Your Back on Me (Thompson and Barbiero U.S. Mix)" – 3:56
  2. "The Power to Forgive" – 4:46
  3. "Big Apple" – 4:02
  4. "Melting the Ice Away" – 5:18
  5. "The Lion's Mouth" – 3:30
  6. "Turn Your Back on Me (Flipped Disc Mix)" – 6:58
  7. "Big Apple (Metro Mix)" – 6:02

[edit] Credits

[edit] Band

[edit] Additional musicians, vocals and production

[edit] Engineers and recording studios

[edit] Staff

[edit] External links

Languages