CD REVIEW: KIM WILDE – Wilde Winter Songbook

Shane | 2 January 2014

CD REVIEW: KIM WILDE – Wilde Winter Songbook
Wildeflower Records
November 2013
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
5/10

After an excellent tour of Australia in late 2013 where 80’s pop starlet Kim Wilde struck – in her own words – the perfect balance for her of rock and pop, expectations were high for this album, which mixes festive classics with a clutch of Wilde originals on the Christmas theme.

Sadly, it’s a mostly insipid collection that almost always errs on the side of blandness and innocuousness, as if it were recorded long before she rekindled her taste for pop n’ roll live performance.

It’s hard to imagine who will enjoy this record – fans of her 80’s work who are now Grandmas, perhaps?

Winter Wonderland with Rick Astley sets the tone on the wrong foot from the word go, and hopes for a revival midway when both father Marty Wilde and brother Ricky join her for White Winter Hymnal are similarly flaccid.

Things pick up at the very end though, with a spirited original called Hey Mister Snowman, and a fun romp through Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree (which she originally recorded as a charity single in the 80’s with comedian Mel Smith), duetting with Nik Kershaw (now a member of her touring band), but it’s too little, too late for this damp squib.

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