With the success of the band
Incantation and ethnic South American music in 1982-1983,
Chris Rea introduced his sixth album,
Wired to the Moon, with the track "Bombollini," which was over six minutes of jungle-sounding drums and the haunting sound of pan pipes. The ethnic flavor continued on the second track, "Touché d'Amour," which was reggae in the unashamed style of lovers rock. However,
Rea wasn't going to disappoint his fans altogether, small in number though they were in the U.K., having built a career over several albums of soft rock tracks and midtempo ballads with
Dire Straits-style guitar breaks, and the rest of the tracks on
Wired to the Moon fell easily into this category, especially "Shine, Shine, Shine" and "Holding Out," which were lovely emotive ballads. Meanwhile, "Ace of Hearts," the title track, and the final song, "Winning," were soft rock numbers -- almost MOR -- crying out for daytime radio play or a top-selling commercial artist to cover them (but neither of these came about). Yet again, the record company released just one single from a
Rea album. The one they chose from
Wired to the Moon was the uptempo
Elton John-style track "I Don't Know What It Is But I Love It." You can't argue with their tenacity, as the song yet again flopped badly, only just scraping into the Top 75 for two weeks, as the album floundered at a high of just number 35. Even this, however, was a considerable improvement for a
Chris Rea album, and one had to applaud Magnet Records for having faith in an artist who obviously pleased some people with his music, even if a lot of people didn't buy it. ~ Sharon Mawer