The 1986 Listening Post - Paul Young - Between Two Fires

Paul Young - Between Two Fires

#440/2119

October 20 1986

Paul Young

Between Two Fires

Genre: MOR

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

Wonderland

Between Two Fires

80s rock is littered with guys like Paul Young. I often liken them to American Idol performers. They aren’t really all that edge cutting. They are inoffensive. That they managed to scrape out a career from uninteresting album pop is an achievement unto itself and I am loath to condemn it considering, hell, I didn’t do it. 

This album is the sound of that era. Every track could be the closing credit track to an 80s Rom-Com (looking at you, specifically, “Wonderland”). This kind of programmer is the price I pay to get to the really good stuff of the era. I suppose it has its fans. 

Lemme put it this way, I could cook dinner to this record. 

https://music.apple.com/us/album/between-two-fires-expanded-edition/406063683

The 1985 Listening Post - Paul Young - The Secret of Association

Paul Young - The Secret of Association

#84

March 25 1985

Paul Young

The Secret of Association

Genre: Blue Eyed Soul

2.5 out of 5

Highlights:

Every Time You Go Away

“Every Time You Go Away” is The “I don’t wanna know what love is” of 85. Yes, I know it’s a cover of a Daryl Hall song that H&O already released a couple years before but, see what happened right there? I wrote the title. You read the title and blammo, the song is in your head. And now you have to go wash it out with a different earworm. 

Good luck. 

I have to wonder, as I did with the last Paul Young album and those of so many other vocalists…did American Idol take over this lane? I don’t know enough about the white boy soul genre but it seems to me like 17 years later, Elliot Yamin would be shooting for this exact position. 

One really should listen to Paul’s version of “Soldier’s Things” and then go RIGHT to Tom Waits’ version, if you want a reason to hate Paul Young more. 

The second half of the album is mostly co-wrtten by Paul. Which means competent tracks that fit his style and voice and are impeccably dull. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-secret-of-association/408372934

The 1983 Listening Post - Paul Young - No Parlez

Paul Young - No Parlez

July 18, 1983
Paul Young
No Parlez
2.5 out of 5

Highlights:
Come Back and Stay
No Parlez

17 years later I have no doubt that Paul Young would’ve ended up as 3rd Runner Up on “Pop Idol” and this album of covers and non-originals would’ve been his release. It would’ve had the same impact as Elliot Yamin’s record. Perhaps better than Taylor Hicks. But, not by much.
Also, looking through Young’s discography I am struck by how little he smiles. I mean, never. He’s like the John Cusack of pop.
HOT TAKE: Paul Young is the least sexy person to sing a song called “Sex”.