Customer Reviews

Saving Grace

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Saving Grace is a special 2-CD repackage of the final two Sad Cafe albums, Politics of Existing and Whatever It Takes (The first of which includes guest appearances by Paul Carrack and Mike Rutherford [who, like Sad Café vocalist Paul Young, are from Mike & The Mechanics]). The albums included here are not the best projects from the group's discography, but Mechanics fans might find some of the material worth a good listen.

Made in UK in 2000, Serial# CMDDD-019, Playing Time: 84 min.

This 2-disc set called "Saving Grace" unites their 7th and 8th albums, 1985's "Politics Of Existing" and 1989's "Whatever It Takes" respectively. A quick note if you happen to already own "Politics Of Existing" on CD released in 1992 by Castle, the track "Heart" appears here at last in its entirety, as it was on the vinyl pressing.

SAD CAFE is in a musical genre that's difficult to describe: kind of a cross between Mike+The Mechanics and Simply Red. It was the brainchild of Ian Wilson on guitar and the late Paul Young on vocals. In my opinion, "PofE" showed the band at its weakest: the melodies had nothing memorable, and it seemed the band had to rely solely on Paul Young's beautiful voice.

The "WIT" album saw the band return in full form, with rich keyboard textures and charming melodies, possibly due to the additional contributions of musicians like keyboardists Steve Pigott (Mike+Mechanics,Gary Moore) and Richie Close (Camel).

These 2 albums won't make the "best 1000 of all time", but if you like the style of early Mike+Mechanics, you can buy this SAD CAFE CD confident that the late Paul Young was one of the great singers in the music industry.