A intriguing compilation from the former Naked Eyes synth player's post-ceding project; contains "Facts Of Love" and "Room To Move." 1996, U.K. import.
Although U.K. duo Climie Fisher's most high-level calling card was keyboardist Rob Fisher's two albums as half of Naked Eyes, which produced a pair of Top Ten hits, both Fisher and his partner, Simon Climie, also had careers as guns for hire. (Fisher worked with Billy Ocean and the Communards; Climie wrote songs for Smokey Robinson, Rod Stewart, and the hit "I Knew You Were Waiting [For Me]" for Aretha Franklin and George Michael.) It's that sessionman feel that marked the pair's work together, comprising a pair of albums that tried to make a virtue of their slickness and calculation. The formula worked best on Climie Fisher's biggest hit, "Love Changes Everything," a worldwide smash that added a little AOR toughening and Climie's fey rasp to the sugary, sequenced synth pop of Scritti Politti (for whom Climie had done some programming). But a few of the dozen other songs included on this compilation offer pleasures just as gooey and great; "Facts of Love," "Fire on the Ocean," and "Hold on Through the Night," in particular, have such gloriously bombastic layers of guitar, synth, and female backing vocals girding their sledgehammer hooks that it's hard to see how they didn't follow "Love Changes (Everything)" straight up the charts. However, as several other tunes show, when the duo was bad, they were very bad -- "Coming in for the Kill" and "Don't Mess Around" are primers on everything that was wrong with late-'80s pop, from the lifeless programming to the utterly failed stabs at blue-eyed soul. On balance, The Best of Climie Fisher, which compiles all the Climie Fisher anyone would need, tilts slightly toward the group's strengths, making it an interesting prelude to Climie's subsequent career as Eric Clapton's right-hand man in the studio. [For fans of esoterica, "Room to Move" later became an American Top Ten success in 1990 for a briefly reconfigured Animotion.] ~ Dan LeRoy
1996 collection on Disky, the first ever compilation for thelate '80s British pop duo featuring ex-Naked Eyeskeyboardist Rob Fisher. Features 14 tracks, including boththe original version of their top 30 1988 hit 'Love Changes(Everything)' and a remix of it, plus 'Rise To TheOccasion', 'This Is Me', 'I Won't Bleed For You' and 'LoveLike A River'.
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