Paul's Beautiful World

First Career Spanning Greatest Hits Compilation

Paul Carrack has lent his voice to many bands, from Ace to Squeeze, the supergroup Spin 1ne 2wo and Mike + The Mechanics. He could also be heard as a guest vocalist on Steve Hackett’s and Roger Waters’s albums. His voice is in everyone’s ear, but his name hardly-known.
A couple of years ago Paul has decided to spend more time on his solo career. He released Satisfy My Soul, It Ain’t Over and Groovin’ on his own label and added a string of concert DVDs such as In Concert, Live In Liverpool and Live At The Opera House. Now here are his first Greatest Hits album, which covers his whole career, and a new live DVD featuring some new things. Go here to read more about the Live At Rockpalast DVD

Greatest Hits - The Story So Far

As the title states this is no greatest hits album of the “end of story” persuasion but one that looks back at what Paul has done so far. Last year Paul asked the fans on his website to suggest songs for a greatest hits album. The result was checked against what was viable and produced The Story So Far, which features no less than 19 songs in chronological order.
Some songs could obviously not be left out, e.g. the Ace’s hit How Long that started it all. It also is the one song Paul definitely plays at every concert even today. Another success was his time with Squeeze; their hit Tempted, an outcome of this collaboration, is included in the CD. A minor hit and some remarkable reviews were the awards for Paul’s breakthrough solo album Suburban Voodoo. It is represented by the single I Need You.
Soon afterwards Paul joined Mike Rutherford’s new side project, the Mechanics. Their first album was not so much by a band but by a congregation of various musicians and singers. It was nevertheless a huge success, and Silent Running became one of the Mechanics’ biggest hits so far. Mike + The Mechanics did not become a full-time thing for Paul, though. He continued to release solo records, the more so since he did not write any songs for the early Mechanics albums. His solo effort One Good Reason was a succès d’estime and produced a couple of Carrack classics: the title song that was not included on The Story So Far and Don’t Shed A Tear and When You Walk In The Room that were. After the release of One Good Reason the Mechanics began to work on their new album Living Years the title song of which would become a world-wide hit and even made it to #1 in the US single charts. This song obviously belongs on The Story So Far. Paul had to re-record the song because, as he explained in an interview, he did not get the rights to use the original. Paul was not at all happy about that to a point that it may even herald the end of the Mechanics. The new recording lives up to the song, though, and does not take away anything from the anthemic intensity.
Paul Carack

In 1989, Paul released Groove Approved after the work with the Mechanics to moderate success. The album is featured with Battlefield and Dedicated on the collection. The latter song was re-recorded on the basis of a spontaneous performance on a Dutch radio station that was played very often in 1989. In the early 1990s things went quiet around Paul. The Mechanics recorded Word Of Mouth, but no song from that album was included on the compilation, not even Everybody Gets A Second Chance that was a minor single hit.
The Mechanics returned in 1995 with a fresher acoustic sound. The first single Over My Shoulder was a favourite hit with radio stations and made it onto Paul’s Greatest Hits album.
Around that time The Eagles decided that hell had frozen over and so they went on tour again. For some time it was rumoured that Paul might join The Eagles. In the end he ‘only’ wrote the hit song Love Will Keep Us Alive for the legendary band. The song was also released on Paul’s album Blue Views. It can be heard on the Greatest Hits album in a newly recorded version that has also been released to promote the new record. Eyes Of Blue was the first single from the Blue Views album, which incidentally also has a new recording of How Long. Eyes Of Blue is another track on the Greatest Hits.
Paul directly recorded another solo album called Beautiful World. The title song is included in the Greatest Hits album. An up-tempo song like The Way I’m Feeling Tonight or Time To Let Go might have been the better choice, though. Beautiful World was succeeded by another Mechanics album, M6. All The Light I Need probably was a candidate for the Greatest Hits. In the end none of the songs on M6 was included.
Paul’s independent phase began right afterwards. He recorded and produced Satisfy My Soul himself and decided to do without any electronic frills. The title song documents this phase. It was just for fun that Paul recorded a couple of classic songs mainly from the 60s and released them. Groovin’ became a favourite with the fans. Anyday Now and the title song are featured on Greatest Hits.
Things turned (more) electronic again in 2003. Paul’s album It Ain’t Over spawned a series of singles, but neither She Lived Down The Street nor Nothing To Lose were used. The compilation includes the title song and Where Did I Go Wrong instead.
By the end of 2005 Paul Carrack, too, caught the Big Band Fever. He recorded the album Winter Wonderland / A Soulful Christmas with the SWR Big Band [SWR, or, Südwest-Rundfunk is a public radio station in southwest Germany; translator’s note], fulfilling one of his wishes. The album consisted of a couple of Carrack hits and other classics. He selected What A Wonderful World as a fine ending for the Greatest Hits.
Now hits compilations are always a bit ambivalent. Rip-offs, gap fillers &c. Paul’s Best Of is the first compilation of all the turns of his career over which he had control. Of course this single CD cannot live up to everybody’s expectations. His guest appearance on Steve Hackett’s Genesis Revisited is not even mentioned. Neither is Hey You, which he sang on Roger Waters’ The Wall Live In Berlin. His work with Nick Lowe is not featured. Neither are his first album Nightbird, several Mechanics Hits and material from M6 and Rewired. A song from the Spin 1ne 2wo album would have been another good idea.
Paul’s career retrospective has turned out a fine album, though. Carrack newcomers in particular will find this the perfect album to get started! The booklet includes a couple of interesting photos alongside remarks about each song by Paul Carrack himself!

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