"Looking Back, Over Our Shoulder" - TWR takes a look at Mike's solo albums.

It would be remiss of us not to revisit the impressive back catalogue from Mr Rutherford and so here are a few thoughts on the back catalogue…

It's hard to believe that Mike's solo career began forty six years ago. Many artists don't have a career a quarter as long and that is of course on top of his career with Genesis, itself a subject for another special edition.

Taking advantage of the hiatus at the end of Genesis’s 1978 tour Mike set to work on a long overdue solo album. He took the somewhat unusual …and potentially risky…choice of basing the album on a concept taken from the book Smallcreep’s Day by Peter Currell- Brown which told the story of Smallcreep, the kind of Everyman figure who symbolises most of us and the struggle with the drab every day existence we live. Not the most promising of ideas I grant you, but the end result was a surprising one.

With the concept spanning one half of the album and a looser collection of tracks taking up the other, here we have some of Mike's strongest song writing. Tracks such as At The End Of The Day and Romani remain amongst my personal favourites as does the album itself. Some fine guitar and bass playing from Mike and equally tasteful keyboards from his old Genesis stablemate Anthony Phillips and the remarkable vocals of Noel McCalla make this one a superb debut.

Mike followed it up in 1982 with the aptly titled Acting Very Strange. OK, his was a brave decision to undertake the vocal duties himself but even so, the end result is the weakest album to hear his name. Several cuts such as Maxine, Hideaway and the album's title track are certainly up to snuff musically and Mike's vocals work surprisingly well on them. The rest of the album however, is decidedly sub par and as for Couldn't Get Arrested…nuff said!

Mike wisely decided that the route of solo vocalist wasn't for him and, as he has always been keen on working with other musicians and writers he set about finding some for his next effort. Allegedly the name of this new band was going to be Not Now Bernard, a nod to the then popular UK sitcom Yes Minister but wiser heads prevailed and thus Mike & The Mechanics was born. The self titled album certainly benefited from the presence of strong songwriters such as B A Robertson and the presence of two superb vocalists in Paul Carrack and Paul Young who between them ensure the album has strength in depth vocally with tracks such as Silent Running and All I Need Is A Miracle and A Call To Arms in particular being very impressive with the former pairing remaining in the band’s live set to this day. Moving between the more ballad based elements such as Taken In to the previously mentioned tracks this was an impressive debut from the new band.

The second album by Mike & The Mechanics was the one which marked their presence as a bona fire rock band. The Living Years had it all; a superlative title track which propelled the band to the number two slot in the UK charts and similar positions elsewhere. A song which could do easily have descended into sentimental mawkishness managed to resonate with people on so many levels.

The album also featured a rockier side to the band with tracks such as Don't, Why Me and Black & Blue showcasing the rabble rousing talents of Paul Young who is the dominant vocalist on this one although Carrack takes the honours on the title track. Once again the mix of elements and styles present here works incredibly well and musically this is every bit as accomplished as its predecessor.

The band's third album, Word Of Mouth was, by all accounts a struggle although it doesn't show. The title track is another out and out rocker fronted by Paul Young and it remains a live favourite as does Get Up which sees Paul Carrack in rockier mood. As Mike said on many occasions, the Mechanics are more about moods and atmospheres and this album flits between the up tempo and the laid back and soulful with A Time And Place and The Way You Look At Me being almost Smooth FM fodder. The album deserves a proper re-evaluation as it certainly contains some fine music.

There were no such problems with the band’s next album. 1994’s A Beggar On A Beach Of Gold can rightly be seen as the successor to Living Years. Here the band hit solid gold pay dirt with a brace of songs which captured the hearts not only of Mechanics fans but also worked their way into the collective consciousness of the nation. Admit it, who hasn't found themselves whistling the chorus to Over My Shoulder?

The album showcased the strengths of both vocalists with the songs highlighting their talents and also ventured into territory seldom broached by the band with the philosophical slant of Mea Culpa and the acid drama of Someone Always Hates Someone - a song which sadly still has a current resonance in these troubled times.

The album also gave us something of a rarity from the Mechanics; a cover version this one being Smokey Robinson’s brilliantly long winded I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever). As albums go, this one remains a favourite.

If we leave the band's Hits compilation out of the equation, then the band’s next album is the incorrectly titled M6. Another polished effort but strangely lacking in the emotion of its predecessor. It has some moments of real drama such as What Will You Do but the overall feel of this one is more laid back and relaxed with Paul Carrack assuming the dominant writing role with Mike.

Most of the songs bear his unmistakable stamp and quality. However it is Paul Young's vocals which shine through on tracks such as My Little Island and the impassioned Look Across At Dreamland. A solid album and one which will always be fondly remembered as it was to be the last one featuring Paul Young. Paul’s death in 2000 left a vacuum which couldn't really be filled but Mike and Paul Carrack decided to give things another try with 2004’ s Rewired. As it's title suggests, this one is an altogether different effort. Gone are the lush sounds which were the Mechanics’ trademark and the album does have an experimental feel to it. With hindsight it does not deserve the harsh criticism that I (and others) gave it when it was released. Several tracks such as Perfect Child, One Left Standing and If I Were You still bear the Mechanics’ stamp but it remains a somewhat characterless effort.

Mike's decision to reconvene the band in 2010 could have been a step too far. Fan loyalties run deep and Paul Young was (and remains) a deeply loved and missed figure. However once again, Mike's unerring sense of what works paid off. The debut album by the new look band, 2011’s aptly titled The Road featured the first fruits of these new writing partnerships

The result was, by Mechanics standards, quite a restrained affair but that isn't to be wondered at as the band were finding their feet. The album featured both the new vocalists: Andrew Roachford and Tim Howard along with South African singer/ songwriter Arno Carstens on several tracks.

Of the new tracks, the title track and Try To Save Me soon became live favourites in the band's live shows. I Don't Do Love is a plush soulful effort with a marvellous vocal from Andrew. Carstens’ vocals on Heaven Doesn't Care, It Only Hurts For A While and Hunt You Down bear and uncanny resemblance to Ray Wilson begging the question why didn't Mike ask Ray to front the new look Mechanics? Either way the album was destined to be well (pun intended) road tested as the band undertook regular touring activities in the years which followed.

2014 was a wonderful year to be a Mechanics fan. First of all it was the 25th anniversary of The Living Years which was subjected to the full remastering treatment. Reissued as a deluxe two disc set and a CD/vinyl edition ( if you bought the deluxe box set) with every track represented by a live version along with a brand new recording of the title track featuring Roachford and a damn fine job he does on it too.

This was accompanied by a brand new compilation but this one had a twist. It not only contained the hit songs but the second disc rounded up most of those elusive B Sides (mentioned elsewhere in this edition) going all the way back to Compression from Smallcreep's Day. Both albums were well received and the latter surprisingly enough, reached the number 18 slot in the UK charts.

By now the band were a fully established live act on the UK circuit and elsewhere and had even reopened the elusive US market as well so the time was ripe for another album and 2017’s Let Me Fly certainly ticked all the boxes.

Once again drawing on the writing skills of himself along with Roachford and Howar along with the compositional skills of Clark Datchler. The album has several tracks which are worthy successors to anything in the band’s catalogue including the prophetic The Best Is Yet To Come which between them set the bar incredibly high in terms of quality. There simply isn't a bad track on this one and it's reception in the subsequent live shows proved the band’s creative spark was as vivid as ever.

The band's most recent album, or should it be called an EP was 2019’s Out Of The Blue. A new set of three songs backed up by new recordings of Mechanics classics demonstrating how much the two new singers have made them their own. The new songs are definitely up to snuff but it begs the question why only three of them? To my mind, the other “half” of this album would have been better served with a live album which would have just as easily demonstrated the talents of the new band. In fact that is the only thing the band really need to release now : a live album!

As anyone who saw the recent live shows will tell you, the band have more new songs in their locker. Two have been road tested and a further two remain unheard as yet so perhaps there is room for another page in the Mechanics’ service history?