Welcome To The Real World

Mr. Mister | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 8, 2011)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA Records Label
• ASIN: B000002WBS
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,332 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Welcome To The Real World by Mr. Mister

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How'd a band like this only last three albums?, July 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Welcome To The Real World (Audio CD)

This is the middle one of three albums from "Kansas Jr." (the other two don't seem to be available), but these guys were tight and melodic from day one, as well as funky enough to keep them out of the "soft rock" quagmire (Robert Fripp obviously thought so when he ended drummer Pat Mastelotto's "planned obsolescence" by making him Bill Bruford's junior partner in the present King Crimson). But that was the 'Eighties for you. Anything melodic came out ear-candy. Anything with punch had to be harsh and grating. Except Mr. Mister--they played hard-driving, radio-friendly pop songs with the finesse of an art rock band. Like the opener "Black/ White"--this bunch had an uncanny talent for being right about which song should be the first one. You find that also on the first album with "Hunters Of the Night" and on the last album with "Stand and Deliver" (which became the theme to the film of the same name). Upbeat songs, all of them--but they don't just crash into you and knock you over on the first beat like the headbanger stuff of that era. They serenely shift into <drive> and build in intensity through the first verse, reaching full stride at the chorus. The next time you play the song, you realize that it didn't start slow and speed up--it was at full tempo from beat one. Other writers here cover the avoidance of synth-pop cliches well, but I think they're talking textures. I can't help but notice that the keyboardist slides deftly between rock, jazz and R & B chordings so well that you forget that, theoretically, these are mutually exclusive forms. But this dude often puts them all in the same song. Why is it that Foreigner is still in business but this band is yesterday's papers? There ain't no justice!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Great Lost Band., February 22, 2000

By 

Jason Stein (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome To The Real World (Audio CD)

I was 12 when "Broken Wings" hit the airwaves and I hated it. Then "Kyrie" hit the airwaves and I loved it. Then "Is It Love" hit the airwaves and I liked that too. In 1987 I bought Welcome to the Real World and Go On. I loved them both, but most people would say that Welcome to the Real World is Mr. Mister's most memorable cd. Later, in '89 I bought I Wear the Face and thought that it was a good debut disc. Mr. Mister is like the Cutting Crew and Bourgeois Tagg--they should have been long-lasting musical acts. I guess with the commercial failure of Go On in '87 the band decided to call it quits. They should have persevered because Go On was a more mature effort than Welcome to the Real World. Go On also had a richer, more organic sound to it. But, Welcome to the Real World is the only disc still in print. I'd recommend it because every track is solid. No album filler or long-winded passages. Just a nice, well produced, well played pop album. Interestingly, Richard Page did a solo cd in 1996 that was mediocre compared to what he did with Mr. Mister. This is a great cd, you won't be disappointed, it's worth the money.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Mister-somewhere between the soul and soft machine?, March 17, 2004

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Welcome To The Real World (Audio CD)

That question is taken from their hit "Kyrie," but later on that. Following the brisk New Wave/rock of I Wear The Face, with "Hunters Of The Night," Mr. Mister (creative name, huh?) made their best-known album, which contains a more streamlined version of the hybrid electropop/rock sound, where a grinding guitar was meshed in with airy synths. Welcome To The Real World yielded their only three Top Ten singles, two of which would hit #1. They benefitted from lead vocalist/bassist Richard Page with his tempered but pleading voice, keyboard/vocalist Steve George, who were also sessions vocalists for bigger artists, Steve Farris's fiery guitars, and Pat Mastelotto's power drums. A good combination.

"Black/White" with its meshed keyboards and bombastic guitar and 80's keyboard theatrics, could've been a single. Actually, it might've been the followup to "Is It Love," but if it was, it tanked. Shouldn't have, as it's not all bad.

Instead of wearing the face, Mr. Mister sings of wearing the "Uniform Of Youth," a call to parents from children. With the anthemic drums and lyrics, as well as the skittery keyboards, again, another possible single. There's a resigned feeling in this song, asking to be respected for individuality, but also a request to parents: "no one said the world was fair/all I want is for you to care."

"Run To Her" could've been another single, as it's a quiet synth ballad emphasizing Page's softer vocals, which is up a register from normal.

Clearly enough thought of Page's pleading vocals and those fiery guitar bursts in the moody ballad "Broken Wings," with its airy synth and bassline. It made the #1 spot, but signalled the beginning of their fifteen minutes, something encompassed only within this album. Between the three singles, this is my favourite.

With "Kyrie"'s power guitars, drums, catchy chorus, Mr. Mister got their second and last #1 hit, on the concept of following one's chosen road. However, any religious themes (kyrie eleison meaning "lord have mercy") is clearly non-existent, as they clearly used its syllabry as something could be hit-single material.

As for "Is It Love," the brisk opening keyboard exercise and the funky bassbeat helped it become one of the more singleworthy tracks. It too hit the Top Ten, and it deserved to, but it did so basking in the warmth of "Kyrie."

"Tangent Tears" is a mixture of pop keyboards with some guitar in parts. Hearing the chorus lends doesn't surprise me that early 80's electropop lasted this long, as it reminds me of Johnny Hates Jazz's "Shattered Dreams."

The title track is a throwback to their earlier album, a catchy a-ha-like number, and is sung to a newborn, one-part welcoming, one-part warning that out there, there's so much to learn and that it's "so much colder than your own soft glance."

They would have one more album, Go On, with the single "Something Real (Inside Me/Inside You)" and their own rendition of "Watching The World," done earlier by Chaka Khan. A good album, but there could've been more singles mined from here.