Comments for Heyward, Nick, North of a Miracle

With North of a Miracle we have one to the classic ablums of the early eighties. At once, breezy,jazzy,soulful and funky, the one element which gels its all together is Mr. Heywards undoubted ability to write a good tune.

With North of a Miracle we have one of the classic albums of the early eighties. At once, breezy,jazzy,soulful and funky, the one element which gels its all together is Mr. Heywards undoubted ability to write a good tune.

This album, with it''s big production and diverse instrumentation, is a great leap forward from early solo Nick Heyward, such as "I Love You Avenue." Here, he carries over the Haircut 100 horn section sound onto many tracks, but the more ballad-like songs are the primary attraction. This is one of the great divorce albums (among such greats as Duncan Browne''s self-titled and Linda and Richard Thompson''s "Shoot Out the Lights!"): the songs are full of the despair of love betrayed and the enduring sense of failure that afflicts all parties involved. The song order is slightly different to the LP, losing some of the produced links between songs, but they stand alone as great numbers, some taking their titles from film ("Whistle Down the Wind") or literature ("The Day It Rained Forever" from Ray Bradbury). My personal favourite is probably "Gathering Sticks on Sunday," a catchy song about delusion and disillusion, but Andrew Powell''s (APP orchestrator) full orchestration of the closer, TDIRF, is magnificent. Hard to find but worth the effort! (Ian C. Thomas)

Jazzy pop, holiday mood with a bit Latin feel, highly recommended. One of the classic albums of UKšs pop in the 1980s.(If you like this album, please also check out the Pale Fountains and the Dream Academy, which are very similar.)submitted by Edvard TAM, HK.

Toothy grin, junky jumpers, winsome photos in front of cricket lawns, Nick in his Haircut 100 days always had the opportunity to wind me up. Being a Jam fan, their music sounded tepid, ineffectual at the time. All these years later, surrounded by boring, pre-packaged boy bands, who couldn't write a good time if it knocked them on the head, Nick's songs sound fresh, endearing, illustrating a time when music still had a touch of naiviete, and eccentricity. 'North Of A Miracle' was Mr Heyward's first solo album and was in many ways the flipside to the good times expressed on the Haircuts album. In fact 'Miracle' with its big orchestral sound always seemed to have a parallel for me with Scott Walker's first album, and the similiarities appear obvious; teenage heartthrob leaves pop group and goes out to record a more serious, moody album revealing the stresses of the previous year and the broken relationships as a result. Even the covers are interchangeable, dark and forlorn, heads bowed, the boy lost growing up at last. Suffice to say the songs accompanied by Paul Buckmaster's string arrangements work the best, in particular the single 'Whistle In The Wind, and the song which outdoes Morrisey in the melancholy stakes, 'Blue Hat For A Blue Day'. The only downsides to the album are the so-called funkier tracks 'Take That Situation' and 'Atlantic Monday', which are pleasant but sound a bit dated. A real good album which showed a big talent, only hinted at until his trilogy of nineties albums.

ERRM that should read chunky jumpers, not something a drug addict would wear.