Search - Wang Chung :: Mosaic

I know it because I lived it.

Jason Stein | San Diego, CA United States | 08/17/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Let me indulge readers in an alternative perspective of Wang Chung. The other reviews here seem to rubberband between worshipfulness and thrashing. How about a more reasonable, more objective view? I remember seeing the video for "Dance Hall Days" from their 1984 album "Points On The Curve" as my first exposure to Wang Chung. I was unaware at the time that they already had a previous album.



In 1985, I was aware of "To Live And Die In L.A." and saw the video for the title track (and later the film by William Friedkin--The Exorcist, The French Connection).



In October 1986, "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" was inescapable, and to a 13 year old kid like myself the video was unique and the song was infectious. "Let's Go" was the second single/video, and I was sold. I saw Jack and Nick at an in store signing at Sound Warehouse in Aurora, Colorado in March 1987. The third single, "Hypnotize Me" was also good, and was used in the film "Innerspace" with Dennis Quaid and Martin Short.



All eight songs on Mosaic are well produced and arranged. If you didn't like the New Wave sound of the 1980s, then you probably won't like "Mosaic". I thoroughly enjoy the punk/New Wave sound, so 20 years later, I still enjoy "Mosaic". "A Fool And His Money" I think of as being the weakest track. Otherwise, "The Flat Horizon, "The World In Which We Live", "Betrayal" and "The Eyes Of The Girl" are all solid numbers. Unfortunately, "Mosaic" would prove to be the pinnacle of Wang Chung's career.



In 1989, I was quick to buy their next album "The Warmer Side Of Cool", which may surpass "Mosaic" artistically. However, by 1989, many popular artists of the 1980s were being snubbed by radio and MTV/VH1, and so Wang Chung disappeared from view.



I have "Strictly, Inc." with Jack Hues and Tony Banks (of Genesis) from 1995 which received no recognition. Then their Greatest Hits was released in 1997 with a new track "Space Junk" which I felt showed great promise, but there was to be no new album.



In June 2005, after I thought they'd vanished into the annals of pop music history, Jack and Nick showed the world once more that they are trained experts at their craft when they performed on the television show "Hit Me Baby One More Time" covering Nelly's "Hot In Herre" with the precision of a surgeon. There was talk of a new Wang Chung album (which I'd snap up in a minute), but alas, a year has come and gone and no new album.



And so those of us who appreciate Jack and Nick's vision have to deal with derision from anti-80's music snobs who are in no position to judge music they weren't old enough to experience the first time around or who were old enough, but preferred hair bands or the fledgling, underproduced rap music of the day.



I give "Mosaic" four stars because I never felt Wang Chung were allowed to reach their true potential, but what they did leave behind is pure melodic New Wave/romanticism that no one seems capable of duplicating 20 years later. It was another time and another place 20 years ago, and while there is a new Neo-New Wave music crowd burgeoning, I haven't heard anything remotely similar to what Wang Chung were able to devise."

THE SEMINAL 80's ALBUM

Reginald D. Garrard | Camilla, GA USA | 09/14/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sure, Michael Jackson, Culture Club and Wham sold more! But what song is more of an indictment of the decade than "Everybody Have Fun Tonight"? Wang Chung, anyone?"

Everybody have fun tonight...

Si Wooldridge | Chippenham, Wiltshire England | 10/29/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's more than likely that the single Everybody have fun tonight..." is the one most people will be familiar with but this album was one of the classic 80's albums (and there were such a lot...).I managed to get this on CD last year after having it on vinyl for ages and then losing it. Wang Chung never got the recognition in the UK that they had in the US, I remember a reviewer of "Points On The Curve" writing them off as too American, and that was with the class "Dance Hall Days" on there as well.The uptempo songs such as "Everybody...", "Hypnotise Me" (English spelling) and "Let's Go" are all worth the money, but my favourite song on here is "Betrayal". This ballad is a moving song about a guy who married his child-hood sweet-heart and has realised that she's betrayed him with someone-else while he's been out working all hours trying to get enough money to live. A familiar story to many people I think...Wang Chung always sounded to me like they were having a good time and just wanted others to share in their fun. Go on, you know you want to..."