Chris Rea – Wired To The Moon

There are many reasons not to like this album, and I suppose there are an equal number of reasons to like it as well, though my ears find nothing challenging or resounding, merely an 80’s artist locked into that studio decade who seems to have heard too much Brian Eno, along with mid tempo ballads laid down by Dire Straits, blessed with slick guitar stylings and breaks, an emotional album lustfully filled with songs to tug at your heart strings, yet songs that exist only in the moment of their playing.

Of course there’s the track “Bombollini,” clocking in at over six minutes, featuring haunting jungle inspired drums along with pan pipes, ethnic flavors that come off completely contrived, a white man’s vision of what he knows not, giving the television generation just want they want, music that requires not thought or internal soul, a mere soundtrack for a desired hour of the day, taking up space where listeners would fare far better with the tranquil quietness of their own thoughts rather than allow Chris Rae to weave them down a never ending path into oblivion.

Even Calder’s mobiles, which inspired the album art offer more freedom and contemplation than the music found here, where if one wishes to float in space, the best way to do that is in the awe of silence and transition. Wired To The Moon is adult contemporary music that didn’t slowly ebb into that genre, the album was born there, fully formed and conceived in that warm realm as cinematic atmospheric background washes that simply flounder outside of that meaningless context.

Listen, I’m not knocking adult contemporary music, it serves a purpose, to fill a void for ears for whom silence is deafening. The album is inherently un-relatable, it’s generic, it’s a slice of un-toasted white bread. The track “I Don’t Know What It Is But I Love It” (give me a break) dropped in at number seventy-five on the Adult Contemporary Charts for less than ten days, with the album hovering around number thirty-three for all of one day, then completely disappearing, though owing it all to a relentless PR program, along with music stores who were given a discount on the cost of other better selling albums if they would agree to committing themselves to taking on twelve copies of Wired To The Moon, making it a loss-leader, instantly relegated to the discount racks.

Now, if you find this record able to fill your needs, or even one of them, then by all means, slip into its warm calculated arms and feel comforted, nurtured and at peace.

*** The Fun Facts: The album’s title, Wired To The Moon, is not simply an expressive creation, the phrase makes the implication that someone wired to the moon is in fact not all there or completely in tact, suffering from delusions with the inability to distinguish reality from fantasy.

Review by Jenell Kesler

For most releases this track listing is correct. "Mystery Man" can only be found on German LP versions of "Wired To The Moon".

None of the tracklists of this album as they are displayed here, both on master release and single versions, are correct.
They reflect the tracklist as it's printed on back cover, which misses track #A4 (#4 on CD). The title of this track, as you can see reported on centre label, is Mystery Man and lasts 3:22. So, this is a 10-track album!
Please verify...