WINWOOD WAS BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE AGAIN WITH THE SUPERGROUP OF `86

Another gem from the 80`s, and this time it isn`t commercial friendly
AOR like bands which i`ve covered on here like Toto and Foreigner or
anything quite like your typical 80`s pop, even though the result was
an album that combined progressive rock dynamics with pop to produce
a set of songs that were just made for FM radio back in 1986. Steve
Winwood was his name, and the album was `Back In The High Life`.
Top album, even if it was a bit of a blues based rock sellout to compete
with the slick rock trend of the time. Winwood had been attempting to
smooth out the rough edges of his Spencer Davis style beginning with
the transitional and underrated album `Arc Of A Diver` in 1980. The
more commercial sounding and upbeat `Talking Back To The Night`
was still slightly understated like `Arc`, but the title track indicated
where Winwood was heading to later on in the 80`s. Steve isn`t a
great singer, he is a bit of a rambler whose multi-instrumental skills
far outweigh his vocal abilities, but he did improve on his singing as
the 80`s wore on. Compared to his output with the Spencer Davis Group
and Traffic, his singing on `Back In The High Life` sounds a thousand
times better. The album was a much tighter set of melodic blues tinged
contemporary rock and that probaly helped in allowing him to sing at a
much better pitch and with more confidence than he ever had, the album
begins with the popular but often overlooked `Higher Love`, The third
song `Freedom Overspill` is a free flowing and less structured affair,
while the all too cute but upbeat `The Finer Things` is groovy, reggae
influenced contemporary rock at its best. The best song on HIGH LIFE to
me is the synthesiser opus `Wake Me Up On Judgement Day`, in much
the same mould as `Freedom Overspill` but with more rhythm to get
it moving. The title track features a startling mandolin intro by Win-
wood, while not groundbreaking instrumentally it would have to be re-
garded as one of Winwood`s most convincing vocals. The fillers, like
the Phil Collins influenced `Take It As It Comes` and the marginally
forced `Split Decision` are still good rock songs which dont detract
too much from the standout four. The album finishes with the rhythm-
less `My Love`s Leavin`, a song that could have done with some more
zest but Winwood`s vocal is good enough to save it from being a dud.
Winwood had a brilliant and much underrated supergroup backing him,
and the modern and innovative blend of synthesisers, drum program-
ming machines, trumpets, trombones, horns, as well as some dynamic
drumming from a couple of humans welded together perfectly to make
what ended up being a great 80`s album. Winwood never bettered it.