Customer Reviews

Lifetime

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I don't know how anyone can say this is classic Real Life. They changed their sound with this album. No more atmospheric synthpop. They sacrificed that for the techno dance club sound of the late 80's early 90's. God tonight is ok, nothing special. The strongest track, Lifetime, is the only one reminiscent of the earlier albums. By the way, does anyone know how I can find Heartland on CD, please write to me at jliosatos@go.com

This is very similar to most of Real Life 's ("Send Me An Angel" was the new wave hit) stuff. It is kind of poppy with a slight euro-goth edge and David Starry's breathy nazel vocals (think Neil Tennent on coccaine) on the top of it all. "God Tonight" is a strong pop song similar to Camouflage or Anything Box, very late 80s synth pop just waiting for its 12" dance club mix. Another track called "5-4-3-2-1" is an extremely ethereal euro-pop dance song. Very euro, good if you like that sound. The rest of the album is more rock-oriented but still takes the gloom depechey type vibe with it. It's one of those CDs that I have a few tracks that I listen to and I quickly skip through the others.

This was the album that should have furthered Real Life's international success had Curb Records decided not to focus on country music while the album began to chart. A fantastc follow up to Heartland & Flame, this album is shamefully under rated. "God Tonight," "Kiss The Ground" and "5,4,3,2,1" will pack the dancefloors in seconds. David Sterry's vocals are a solid compliment to "Lifetime's" beat driven instrumentation. If you liked "Send Me An Angel" you MUST get this album.

All around this album is excellent. Kiss the Ground and Torture To Me are two of my favorites but if you buy this album it will probably be for the famous tune God Tonight. Excellent!

Real Life, one of several bands to come from the Land Down Under in the 1980's was ahead of its time in many ways. Their synth sound was a little too edgy for those used to the British New Wave and New Romantic music but was not hard enough or edgy enough to appeal to the growing goth and neo-punk/alternative movements as fellow Aussie band INXS and others did. The sound on this album is a more polished and beat driven offering than on Heartland and Flame. Many of their songs from this album have been sampled and remixed in various clubs during the mid and later 1990's and can even be heard today in some areas in Germany and other European discoteques. Never commercially sucessful they never the less have a devoted following. For those to whom a mix between a Duran Duran and Erasure would appeal I think they would find this album a delight. Some of their earlier material is also stimulating but for that techno dance sound this is the album of choice. Buy it and listen to it you will be happy you did with songs like "Torture to Me", a depeche mode style lyric with a great beat. Or the head bobbing, booty shakin' "Sister, Sister" whose lyrics can be a little dark under the lightness.

Australian new wavers had their one moment of brilliance when "Send Me An Angel" broke into the top 40 in 1983, and have spent the last two decades chasing the elusive follow-up. "Lifetime" shows why Real Life just didn't have the legs to make it. "Send Me An Angel" is such a terrific song that it actually had a revival in 1989 and recharted. Real Life got a new contract and released "Send Me An Angel 89" and then rushed back into the studio to record and release "Lifetime" in 1990.

"Lifetime" is a great EP stretched into 10 songs. Crushing Depeche Mode, New Order and INXS into terraformed bytes, "God Tonight" and "Kiss The Ground" managed to become modern-rock dance hits, but there is not much here by way of substance. Add that their label, Curb records, was putting all their priorities behind establishing themselves as a country label and "Lifetime" fell by the wayside quickly. Real Life is - in my opinion - a band that cut two great albums (their Heartland debut and the follow-up Flame, both out of print), and by the time of this album were flailing at anything to reconnect.

That's evident by the over-dependence on synthpop gimmicks like vocodors on almost every song and the near indistinguishable mechanical beats. There's also a sense of production cloning because, well, "all the cool kids are doing this." "Torture To Me" is a direct lift of house-styled Pet Shop Boys and "God Tonight" is the best Depeche Mode song they never wrote. "Lifetime" is an average album of late new wave that fans of 80's tunes will enjoy. The rest of us will cock an eye at the period-sound of it all.

(As a post-script, Real Life leader David Sterry is still making Real Life albums and they still sound like this.)