Sometimes change is good -- sometimes. The
Models'
Out of Mind Out of Sight is not necessarily one of those times. Not that this is a bad album, but the
Models were doing fine before the addition of talented bassist/vocalist
James Freud and their switch from quirky rock to white funk. Led by
Sean Kelly, the
Models had a small catalog of intelligent art rock releases like Alpha Bravo Etc, Yes With My Baby, and Local And/Or General before
Freud joined for the slightly more commercial Pleasure of Your Company album. From there, they released this platter of muscular funk rock that sounds like a crass attempt to sound just like and sell just as many albums as
INXS. Bringing in a talent equal to
Kelly's was a smart move, but allowing
Freud equal time on record was another issue. In fact,
Freud gets top billing above
Kelly on this album, only his second with the
Models. There are some great songs on display here, including "Stormy Tonight," "Big on Love," "Barbados," and "King of Kings," but when the band kicks into funk mode, the sound is not unlike
INXS outtakes. The title track was a huge worldwide hit single for the
Models, and they certainly deserved it. They may have gained a whole new group of fans with this album, but they lost a large portion of their core followers and were never able to recover, breaking up just one album later. ~ Steve Schnee