Wonderful Comedy
Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 01/05/2007
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I was fortunate enough to interview Colin Verncombe in 1987 when A&M records was trying to break "Wonderful Life" in America. I really dug the album it came from and thought that - in the era that The Thompson Twins and Depeche Mode were having big hits - so would "Wonderful Life" ultimately break the charts. Well, it did. Just not in the states. A huge international hit, Black became a star in England and had a run of top twenty singles in the UK. He had three albums released in the US, "Wonderful Life" and "Comedy," and then a self-titled 1991 album that dissapeared in America but still charted overseas.
This anthology covers the best of that period. While his first CD remains the best of his work, the additional singles cover a lot of stylistic ground. He made some devastatingly emotional material, like "Let Me Watch You Make Love" and had a terrific sense of irony, evidenced by the terrific single from the first CD, "Everything's Coming Up Roses" and by "You're a Big Girl Now." (Even the title to his second album was a dig at the critics who claimed he was too melancholy.) "I Was Right You Were Wrong" should have been a dance floor smash. Alas, not to be.
But more than anything else, there is the fantastic "Wonderful Life." In America, there were two versions (the US Version of "Comedy" having "Wonderful Life" on it in a blatant attempt to re-try making it into a hit). Blending a perfectly sunny melody and chorus with a raining-on-the-parade lyric, it remains an eighties classic. Fortunately - or not, depending on your point of view - "Wonderful Life" has become a staple of 80's one-hit-wonder shows and has even been used to sell chocolates in the UK. In America, it has probably become best known via its appearance during an episode of "Queer As Folk's" fourth season. So if you were wondering "who is THAT?", Black is your man. This collection is worth it just for that song, with plenty of tasty extra tunes."
Black's review
Mark Pollack | NY | 12/23/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I don't know this guys other song's but, "Wonderful life" is one of a kind song that you can not love. Lyrics + music , clever and original. Uptaking.
Get Wonderful life."
Track Listings (18) - Disc #1