Coming off a highly successful tour with the likes of Don Henley, Bangles, Eurythmics, Tina Turner, and Heart, as well as promoting their platinum released 1985 album, Welcome To The Real World, one would expect great things from Mr. Mister's follow up studio release, Go On...
This would not be the case. The group's third album would only produce one top forty hit, and overall less popularity than its predecessor. Critically, it wasn't shunned, with reviews stating it was more or less the same as what came before it, with the only decline really being overall sales.
Based on my prior listening session of their debut, I War The Face, and a nostalgic fondness for Real World, I pressed through on to 1987's Go On... I wasn't expecting much, while at the same time, hoping for something better. Quite the conundrum to be in.
The album starts out with a peppy drum roll for Stand And Deliver, not to be mistaken with the song of the same name by Adam And The Ants, which admittedly got me bobbing my head instantly. My immediate first impression was that it was off to a better start then their debut during that listening session.
This momentum didn't last long, and from there, I started to scan the track listing of the album. It was here that I somewhat cringed, and made an audible disapproval, "Mmm." What I saw was a list of songs that were averaging five to six minutes long. Far too long for any song to go on. At a run time of about an hour, this is too much, and a common flaw with recordings produced as of 1987.
Up to this point, the average runtime of your typical vinyl was thirty to forty minutes. As such, artists would strive to craft an album with this time limit in mind. The only stray from this was the occasional double album, which was considered a special event, and reserved for only the best of the best. There's a whole level of story just behind that aspect.
However, with the dawn of the CD came extended availability of space, and as a result, increased runtimes. Now bands were expanding upon their material, scrambling to fill sixty to seventy minutes of available space, essentially making every release a double album. The end result was bloat, filler, and simply too much opportunity for garbage.
Your refined three minute radio friendly tunes became five to six minute epics, most of which dragged on far too long. Further, this also meant that basically every song made the cut, no longer reserved as a b-side for the single. Again, bloat. It's the best word to describe it all.
Overall, I wish I could have given this album the attention it deserved, but being at work, was disrupted multiple times. Frankly, what I did hear was not impressive enough to warrant going back to it, or restarting tracks repeatedly.
Though Go On... would deliver a gold status album, it was labeled as commercially unsuccessful. Following its release, guitarist Steve Farris would leave. The remaining members would team up with Christian artist, Paul Clark, and provide backup instrumentation for his album, Awakening From The Western Dream. They would then begin work on their fourth studio album, Pull.
While it was completed and anticipated for a 1990 release, RCA would instead chose to shelve it. Following this, Mr. Mister disbanded. Pull would eventually be released in 2010 on Page's independent label in conjunction with Sony Records. However, at this point, the world had moved on from the band. Though they have reunited for occasional one-off performances, for the most part, Mr. Mister remains inactive.
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| THIS WEEK ON THE CHARTS June 2, 1984 |
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