Customer Reviews

Kids Are the Same

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4 star:		(1)
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A much tougher sound than the self titled album, The Kids Are The Same is good follow up. With should have been hits such as That's What Life's All about or I will Say No, this album is one of the great lost classics of the 80s.

However, CBS did release On The Highway and it didn't chart. Had they decided to make That's What Life's All About a single, perhaps things would have been better for Paul Collins and company. Nevertheless, CBS then sat on the rest of the album, and then bounced The Beat off the roster. In the early 90s, Paul Collins managed to reissue his first two albums on CD via his Wagon Wheel label to which now they have fallen out of print again. Fan demand are high for both Paul Collins' Beat albums. How bout it Wounded Bird?

And Wounded Bird Records comes through once again. Now you can get The Beat AND The Kids Are The Same as a two on one CD, so you don't have to pay a hundred bucks for just one of them. It will be released sometime in May, so be on the lookout for it.

A couple years had passed after The Beat's debut album was released, the follow up - "The Kids Are The Same" - was different but equally great! "Met Her Yesterday" and "Dreaming" are great songs and should have been massive hits if CBS wouldn't have dropped the band about the time the album was released. The great rocker "On The Highway" had limited plays on MTV but I question why this was the song - as great as it is - that was issued and (barely) promoted. I would love to get my hands on that video!

"The Kids Are The Same" and "That's What Life Is All About" are great songs in their own right. There are no weak songs on their debut or this album, only different degrees of greatness. Paul is still around and touring (as of 2011) and he still sounds great. In my opinion, these songs still sound as great today as they did when they were released! Great music from a great band and why The Beat never hit it big in the USA is just going to have to be one of life's mysteries. Timeless music and it takes me back to my teenage years everytime I play them.

Paul has continued to put out great music throughout the past three decades but there is something special about The Beat's first two albums. No other artists have put out a 1-2 punch like The Beat and if you don't love this music, you have no soul! Power pop rules!

After almost 3 years, Paul Collins' Beat had both their name and sound homogenized. They now had more in common with the likes of Eddie Money than their smart pop of the first album, and the similarity between "The Kids Are The Same" and Bryan Adams' "The Kids Wanna Rock" is kind of sad. Another case of corporate record company takes another promising band and blands them out before dismissing them....

Sigh