From: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc
Subject: Review: Mari Wilson - Beat The Beat/Just What I Always Wanted
Date: 18 Aug 92 14:34:39 GMT
Reply-To: awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Al Crawford)
Organization: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science

Mari Wilson. Not to be confused with Mary Wilson, the geeky looking one in
the Supremes or Meri Wilson, who did it in the bedroom and the hall with
the "Telephone Man" in 1977. This is a different Ms Wilson, Neasden's Queen
Of Soul, possessor of the sort of hairdo that'd give Cindy Wilson of the
B-52s a severe case of beehive envy.

The Great Expectations label have recently raided the archives of Wilson's
old label, The Compact Organisation, and put out 4 CDs, including two by
Mari herself. Unfortunately, that's about all they *do* tell you in the
booklet. Both CDs are of well over standard LP length yet no indication is
given as to whether they were originally double albums, or are single
albums with bonus tracks or, indeed, whether they are simply two new
collections of old tracks with no chronological ordering whatsoever.

This lack of information makes it very difficult to date the two albums.
All that's known is that Wilson's 15 minutes of fame stretched from the
March of 1982 until the June of 1983 and that afterwards nothing was heard
of her, save for the occasional backing vocals, until earlier this year
when she reappeared, sans beehive, as a sorta jazzy Alison Moyet-esque
chanteuse.

This development was hardly surprising. The primary focus behind all Mari's
previous releases has been nostalgia. Slightly tongue in cheek nostalgia,
certainly, but nostalgia nonetheless. Sporting that enormous beehive and
clad in the sort of dress that went out of fashion about five years before
I was even born, the decidedly non-photogenic Mari's early output was an
out-and-out homage to the Motown sound. It's no surprise that as many
people will know her through one of the videos of those other early
eighties Motown afficionados Soft Cell (she appears in the video for
"What!") as through her own work. The first disc here, _Beat The Beat_
chronicles this period of her career.

Mari Wilson	    Beat The Beat	  Great Expectations PIPCD 032 [UK]

	Total Running Time: 66 min 42 sec

	1.	Dance Card				2:36
	2.	Beat The Beat				3:46
	3.	Love Man				2:25
	4.	Stop And Start				2:50
	5.	Ecstasy					3:13
	6.	If That's What You Want			3:34
	7.	She's Had Enough Of You			2:15
	8.	Glamourpuss				4:39
	9.	Baby It's True				4:34
	10.	It's Happening				3:57
	11.	You Look So Good			4:02
	12.	What's Going On				3:42
	13.	Ain't That Peculiar?			3:34
	14.	Rave					5:22
	15.	I'm Happy Just To Dance With You	2:55
	16.	The Maximum Damage			2:44
	17.	Let Me Dream				3:20
	18.	Would You Dance With A Stranger?	2:07
	19.	Cry Me A River				4:00

Her influences are prominently placed - there's covers of the Marvin Gaye
track "What's Going On" and the Miracles track "Ain't That Peculiar". The
intro to "If That's What You Want" positively screams "Dancing In The
Streets" and the overall feeling of the album is that someone's been
playing cut-and-paste with a best of Motown compilation. The derivative
nature of the material does drag somewhat, but most of it's executed so
well, and Mari's voice is so clear and strong that you find yourself not
particularly minding that you've heard it all before.

There are exceptions, of course. "Cry Me A River" (chronologically her last
hit single, from June of 1983) is a Mari and solo piano cover of the 1957
hit by Julie London and this, combined with a cover of "Would You Dance
With A Stranger" (from the film about Ruth Ellis of the same name) move
slightly further back in time than the rest of her influences, to the late
50s. There's also a Beatles cover. Oh, and the presence of songs called
"Rave" and "Ecstasy" together on the one album is rather an amusing
coincidence.

Then there's the title track. Somehow this just doesn't fit. It's easily
the standout track here and it presages what was to come later in its mix
of Mari's Motown influences and an early 80s pop sound. Extraordinarily
catchy, with pop girl backing vocals. Oh, it's also a good candidate for
the recurring USENET "Songs About Masturbation" thread (which we're
probably due for another round of sometime soon).

Overall the album is, from my point of view, a little patchy. I'm not a
huge Motown fan, but most of Wilson's homage hits the same spots as the
material I *do* like, and then there's the title track. So, while not a
classic album, it's still got enough going for it to prevent me regretting
its purchase.

Erland Rating: +0
Crawford Rating: Turquoise/Tangerine/Pekingese

The Mari Wilson sound took a large step forward with her later material.
While retaining her band the Wilsations (Harry, Barry, Larry, Cary, Gary
and Jim) and her female backing vocals (erm, Candy and Mandy) and the basic
Motown influence, _Just What I Always Wanted_ added a magic extra
ingredient. This extra ingredient was having Tony Mansfield as producer.
Mansfield fans will be able to guess exactly the sort of effect his
production had, but for those who're unfamiliar with the name, Mansfield
was the man behind New Musik, one of the earliest synth-pop groups to chart
(in 1979 or thereabouts). With New Musik he managed something that hasn't
been achieved quite as elegantly since - to produce synth-pop that was a)
warm, b) distinctive and c) non-gimmicky. In his later career as a producer
he showed an ability to make whoever he was producing sound like New Musik,
whether they wanted to or not.

Mari Wilson    Just What I Always Wanted    Great Expectations PIPCD 034 [UK]

	Total Running Time: 62 min 22 sec

	1.	Wonderful To Be With			4:26
	2.	Just What I Always Wanted		3:25
	3.	The End Of The Affair			5:14
	4.	Are You There With Another Girl?	4:39
	5.	Dr Love					3:28
	6.	This Time Tomorrow			2:59
	7.	Remember Me				3:38
	8.	One Day Is A Lifetime			4:27
	9.	Beware Boyfriend			4:59
	10.	I May Be Wrong				3:16
	11.	Use Him					3:55
	12.	Love And Learn				2:45
	13.	This Is It				6:01
	14.	Tu No Me Llores				3:26
	15.	Let's Make This Last			5:02

Given the Mansfield influence, it's not a huge surprise that _Just What I
Always Wanted_ sounds in several places like _New Musik Play The Best Of
Motown_. Since all the original material (only two cover versions this
time) is penned by Mari's usual writer Tot Taylor rather than by Mansfield,
his influence doesn't completely submerge Mari's own sound beneath a flood
of Mansfieldisms, and the combination of the two sounds with neither
dominating works well.

"Wonderful To Be With" demonstrates this admirably, a Motown-esque track
with Mansfield's light synth touch occasionally peeking through. After the
highpoint of the excellent first track, most albums would be content to
rest on their laurels. Not this one though. "Just What I Always Wanted" is
Wilson's piece de resistance, and her only top 10 hit. Perfect sugary pop,
catchy to the point of annoyance, and managing to sound both 60s and 80s at
the same time. Nothing else on the album quite hits this peak, but several
tracks get close. The intro to "Dr. Love" is *pure* New Musik. The rest of
the song isn't, but the intro is. "Remember Me" and "Beware Boyfriend" both
hark back to Wilson's earlier sound with less of a Mansfield influence, and
are excellent.

There's a few duds. The two Tot Taylor produced tracks lack something
compared to the better Mansfield material, but "Love And Learn" is decent
enough.

To round off there's "Let's Make This Last". On first hearing this, I found
myself wondering if something had gone wrong with the mastering. Twenty
seconds of keyboards over backmasked Mari gives way to mix hysterics and a
beat plus minimalist melody dance track that would, with the bass boosted,
sound quite at home on a dance floor today. Lovely fragile synth melodies,
some wonderful trickery in the vein of the sort of thing Trevor Horn
started doing on ZTT a couple of years later, and nice vocals (eventually)
from Mari. It's wonderful, New Musik gone techno with Wilson's vocals. I
have trouble with the credits listed here - it's so different from
everything else that Mansfield *has* to have had more to do with it than
just producing it (unless it's a drastic Mansfield remix of a much blander
track).

Overall, _Just What I Always Wanted_ is a superior album to _Beat The
Beat_, from the cover (showing Mari demonstrating that Just What She Always
Wanted is, in fact,a huge pile of Tupperware (tm)) to the contents, with
half a dozen standout tracks and a couple that are all-time classics.

Erland Rating: +2
Crawford Rating: Mauve/Kiwi Fruit/Poodle

So, two albums, which one do you buy or do you buy both? I'd certainly
recommend _Just What I Always Wanted_ over _Beat The Beat_ unless you're a)
heavily into Motown and b) loathe Tony Mansfield's production. It's
certainly the order I bought them in, picking up _Beat The Beat_ to see if
it offered any more goodies like those to be found on _JWIAW_. It doesn't,
alas, but it still has it's moments. Now if only they'd been able to
squeeze the three or four best tracks from _BTB_ onto the second album...

--
			Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk
	  Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh
   Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland
	     Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165  Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209
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