Cliff Richard -
#346
by Paul Zickler
Cliff Richard
I'm No Hero
Genre: MOR Soft Rock
Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5
Paul’s Rating: 3.75 out of 5
Highlighteds:
A Little In Love
Give A Little Bit More
In The Night
Dreamin’
Behold the majestic wonder that is Cliff Richard. Did you know Cliff has sold more albums in England than any artist besides Elvis and the Beatles? And here I thought that was Boxcar Willie, or maybe Slim Whitman, but no, it’s Sir Cliff Lane Richard, OBE. That’s “Most Excellent Order Of The British Empire” to you.
This is the guy who was already a superstar when the moptops left Liverpool, and he’s still one today. “I’m No Hero?” We beg to differ, Sir Cliff. The album? For starters, it’s impeccably produced for the genre and the time. Songs arrive shrink wrapped with the perfect amount of compression on the drums, chorus on the guitars, and reverb lite on the vocals, which are charmingly front and center in the mix without being obnoxious. Cliff Richard is many things, but obnoxious is NOT one of them.
The single I remember is A Little In Love, which, you have to admit, is a well constructed bit of pop fluff, with those mellow synths and cheery backup singers repeating “Just a little, hm hmm” at the exact volume they should be for proper AM radio airplay. The pre-chorus glides perfectly into the chorus, which has a damn catchy bass line, and when Cliff sings “Oh yeah,” you just have to smile. Will you forget ever hearing the song an hour later? Probably. Does Cliff mind? I can’t imagine that he does. “Just glad to make my fans happy for three minutes and 45 seconds,” as he probably said once. And if he didn’t say it, I’m sure he thought it. He’s just a pleasant guy making pleasant music. I found myself thinking of other artists while listening.
What would Daryl Hall have made of Give a Little Bit More, for instance? Something more interesting certainly, but rougher around the edges. What if Cliff had hired a guitarist with imagination to play the solos on In The Night? It might’ve made me want to listen to the song more than once, but it might have just distracted from Richard’s vocals.
Dreamin’ (also a single, but one I don’t remember) was co-written by Leo Sayer; what if Leo had released it instead of Cliff? Well, it probably wouldn’t have mattered since it’s a pretty boring song. But still, it gave me something to think about while listening. I know, I know. Music should challenge us, make us think or make us move, preferably both. But really, wouldn’t it be downright dishonest for a guy like Cliff Richard to make music like that? A perfectly pleasant fellow makes a perfectly pleasant album and then goes home to one of his mansions, pets the dog, kisses the wife, and carries on. As it should be. (Note: The Spotify version has a couple of bonus tracks, including Dynamite by Cliff Richard and The Shadows, which originally came out in 1959 and rocks in a pleasantly British way. If you’re interested in the history of the Majestic Sir Cliff, it’s worth one listen. Guaranteed you’ll forget you ever heard it, but Cliff won’t mind.)
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