Review: “Love Moves” by Kim Wilde (Vinyl, 1990)

Today’s POP RESCUE from an uncertain future, is the 1990 7th album Love Moves by British singer, songwriter, and latterly TV presenter Kim Wilde. Will you fall in Love with this album, or should you Move on? Here’s our review…

Kim Wilde - Love Moves (1990) album cover — Kim Wilde – Love Moves (1990) album

This 10 track LP opens with the lead single It’s Here, and this is a song that fares as a nice upbeat opener to the album. It is laden with some lovely sounding synths and bass line, and Kim’s vocals are bright, suiting the triumphant ‘It’s here!’ claim. The warmth of the Spanish guitars swells perfectly, giving Kim plenty of space to show off her vocal power and range uninterrupted. It’s a great start for the album, but sadly the UK public disagreed, abandoning it at #42 in the singles chart.

Next up is Love (Send Him Back To Me), and we’re off to a percussive start before some seriously 90’s beats and synths drop in. The verse sadly starts quite low in register or mix, and Kim’s vocals are not as clear, but that’s made up for in the higher vocal parts and the chorus, set against this bouncy song.

Storm In Our Hearts follows that, and this takes us to a mellow and reflective place. There’s plenty of heartfelt lyrics here as it plods along, but unfortunately it’s path is not clear and it just staggers around a bit before gently admitting that it’s a bit lost. This would have worked out okay as a b-side, and is misplaced here.

Kim is joined by fellow 80’s hit-maker, Jaki Graham on backing vocals on this, World In Perfect Harmony – the first of three tracks she’ll feature on here, and this returns a welcome wave of energy. This is a perfectly catchy and foot-tapping song, and I’m reminded of some of the PWL albums tracks from the likes of Jason Donovan or Sonia – and this track could easily be sat amongst them. Kim and Jaki’s vocals work really well together, and I look forward to the other two tracks later on.

Side One closes with Someday, which is a beautifully space-y or dreamlike song. The gentle tinkling and bleeping synths remind me a little of some of the finer moments of Erasure, and the echoed vocals really sound wonderful here, and Kim’s dreamy lyrics really fit with the sound. It’s a lovely track and the perfect ending to the first side.

Side Two bursts opens with second single Time, and this is a really nice upbeat pop song, and pretty catchy. Kim gets to show off some great pop vocals throughout, although there’s a slightly odd vocal melody part way through, but it soon recovers resulting in a great song. Sadly, the UK called Time early on this single, and it fell at #71.

Who’s To Blame is next up and this is a mellow pop song. There’s some early-90’s orchestral stab sounds from the synths, but overall it’s a soft, lighter, song. The ‘for what’ part of the song’s lyrical theme is ‘the environment’, resulting in some empty moral dilemma questions in the lyrics but no attempts at an answer. This approach of ‘we gotta do something’ reminds me of a David Hasselhoff hit that was slightly more memorable.

That’s followed by Can’t Get Enough (Of Your Love), which was one of the album’s singles to not be released to the UK (it went to Europe instead), which is a bit of a shame, as it’s somewhat of a belter. There’s a load of rock beats and electric guitars (that do have quite a roar towards the end), and a ton of catchy euro dance energy, whilst also feeling like a stronger connection to her huge 1980s hits. This really could have been the UK hit single that this album needed. A complete missed opportunity.

In Hollywood follows this, and the tempo is back down again. Thankfully we have Jaki on backing vocals again, and they really shine in contrast to Kim’s effortlessly flowing lyrics. It’s a nice easy song, and for whatever reason I was thinking about sunshine whilst listening to it. It’s quite a nice track.

The LP closes with I Can’t Say Goodbye, and this is a slow plodding ballad of a track. Kim gets a simple melody, but it’s the chorus that sounds best, and Jaki is back on backing vocals here, which almost echo a bit of gospel style. When released as the third UK single, it stalled at #51. Ironically, Kim does ‘Say Goodbye’, given that this is the final track of the album.

Kim Wilde’s lead single ‘It’s Here’ (1990)

Verdict

Over all, this album is nice enough with plenty of ‘new’ 90’s sounds for her first release of the new decade, but it just feels like someone has left the handbreak on and tried to drive off.

Tracks Time and It’s Here are really nice tracks, but it’s the non-UK single Can’t Get Enough (Of Your Love) that packs the punch as the highlight. Kim Wilde’s 1980s career was packed with superb pop songs, and it’s the belter that gets released elsewhere that could have returned her to a better chart placing, and dragged the other singles with it.

Who’s To Blame and I Can’t Say Goodbye are two low points, with Jaki Graham’s backing vocals scoring the points on the latter that save if from a 1-star boredom.

With late 1980’s being peak pop that’s heading into dance music, this album really needed an injection of energy to take on the likes of chart-dominating Kylie Minogue and other pop stars.