Retro Spins: Wham - Fantastic

Wham's Make It Big was an accurate title, but what about their prior album, Fantastic? Does it live up to its name as well?

No.

After hearing the first track, I could understand why George Michael wanted to distance himself from the Wham image. It didn't get any better with the tracks which followed either. I felt like I was in the Blue Oyster bar from Police Academy as I listened to it. The music was not hitting any of the right notes for me.

It sounded dated, even for 1983. It's almost as if the album is locked in a late 70's disco era. Fine, if you like disco. While I'm not necessarily a hater, admittedly, there are only a few handfuls of songs in that style which I enjoy. I think it was because of this that I found myself really not able to get into the album. It wasn't what I was expecting at all. While that can be a good thing, this time around, it was not.

It was around the time I was coming to the conclusion of my theory on the disco theme that track three hit, Love Machine. The Miracles first took this song to wild success in 1975 on their album City Of Angels. That album is coincidentally noted as coinciding with the rise of disco.

Track four, Wham Rap (Enjoy What You Do), did a complete 180, churning out a funky rap sound. It doesn't work. A rapper, George Michael, is not. The four minute mark of this six minute forty-six second song was my limit. From there, I started skipping. The last remaining four tracks each got about thirty seconds of my time before being skipped as well.

"Uh-uh", was the last sound I muttered before finally turning it off. I couldn't take it anymore. Fantastic is awful!

Click "HERE" to go back to the home page. For more posts related to this one, please click the labels below.