Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
1987 was a very good year, indeed!, April 22, 2004
Early morning, sun rising on Sidney seen through the shades of a window in a radio station transmition booth. A DJ talks to his listeners and takes a request from a female voice on the phone: "Can you play 'Crazy' for me?" This is how the video of Icehouse's "Crazy" started, back in 1987, the year Australian band put out this (in my opinion, their best) album: 'Man of Colours', and the DJ was no one else but lead singer Iva Davies.The entire album is a solid collection of late eighties material from the band that is firmly entrenched in the same vein as other bands of their time, such as INXS, Midnight Oil and, to a certain extent, even U2. Though "Crazy" will always live in my mind as a song that I will always remember 1987 for, the rest of the album is packed with great works, such as "Electric Blue", the title track and "Kingdom". To complement it, this remastered edition comes packed with extra tracks of remixes of the other songs. In particular, the midnight mix of "Crazy" is the 'background' music that was playing in the beginning of the song's video, before the actual song kicked in, and it's one hell of a song to begin the day! Overall: go, don't walk -run to get a copy of this album!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You gotta be crazy, baby, September 24, 2004
The 1987 album from Icehouse was the record that broke them in the US, despite a large body of work that was well known Internationally. Iva Davies is a very good vocalist in the Bryan Ferry vein (there are moments when "Man Of Colors" starts sounding like Roxy Music, especially the title track). While the songs here tend to be very good (and "Electric Blue" became a substantial hit), the synth heavy production sounds very much of the period. However, that won't keep you from being drawn in by the tale of "The Heartbreak Kid" and the pop confections of "Crazy." John Oates even gave his seal of approval by adding background vocals to "Electric Blue," and you can hear Davies stretching for Daryl Hall/Paul Young moments of soul here as well. If that was the kind of 80's music that got your ears (Roxy, Fixx, H&O), then "Man Of Colors" is where you'll find love in the Icehouse.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Introspection is NOT a dead artform, November 7, 2003
Icehouse has always been difficult band to pigeon hole. That can be a good thing for artists, who prefer to move from style to style, genre to genre, if their writing talents are so disposed. Most songwriters will find a niche, one that's safe, self-expressive (and profitable). From its very beginnings, Icehouse moved through a variety of styles and personnel changes, culminating in the seminal "Man of Colours", a near tribute to the song-writing prowess of the band's longtime frontman, Iva Davies, the seemingly only, constant member of the band.
Davies is a consummate songwriter. He has the ability to shove his heart into your face, and still reveal only what he wants to let you see. He has made his dark, quirky mind and heartfelt emotion truly available to us in this work, a collection of pop savvy melodies and haunting, atmospheric songs.
An undercurrent of insecurity seems to be pervasive in many of the tracks, such as the opener, "Crazy", a wonderful pop, yet powerful song with one heck of a hook, a solid rhythm complement and great guitar sound, reminiscent of "the Fixx" or early James Honeyman-Scott of the "Pretenders". The insecurity is found in the lyrics, not the masterful execution by the musicians, with lines such as the chorus: "Yeah, you gotta be crazy, baby/ To want a guy like me/ Yeah, you gotta be out of your mind/ Crazy..."
Tracks like "Electric Blue" continue Mr. Davies' feeling of anxiety with exposing his feelings, or would writing about those anxieties actually be his way of dealing with them(?): "I just freeze/ Everytime you see through me/ And it's all over you? Electric Blue..."
"Man of Colours", the title track, is a smorgasbord of well documented emotion, and "Heartbreak Kid" is eerie, haunting, and beautiful in its execution. This cd is a must for any Iva Davies fan, Icehouse fan, or any fan of well written pop music.
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