Paul King isn't a name too many people seem to remember from the 80's. Truth be told, until I stumbled across the single, Love And Pride, while doing my own bit of 80's searching, I never heard it either. Paul initially started the band, King, and with them released 1984's Steps In Time, and 1985's Bitter Sweet. However, I've already Retro Spinned both albums from the band, so today, I'm jumping into Paul's solo effort.
Initially upon graduating from Coventry Drama School, King joined the West Midlands Police Cadets. He stuck with it for two years before joining rock-ska band the Reluctant Stereotypes. They released the 1980 album, The Label, which appears to be the only record they ever released, and never released on CD.
The band disbanded shortly thereafter, and Paul started the new group, Raw Screens, changing the name to King by 1983. Though they produced two gold albums, the aforementioned Steps In Time, and Bitter Sweet, by 1987, Paul opted to go solo. Joy would be his only solo album released.
I can see why in 1987 this album wouldn't impact much. That was a tough year for artists to compete. Things could easily be buried under the likes of Bon Jovi's Slipepry When Wet, Def Leppard's Hysteria, Beastie Boys' Licensed To Ill, U2's The Joshua Tree, Whitney Houston's Whitney, and not to mention, Michael Jackson's Bad. Point being, if you didn't have something massive, good luck being noticed.
It's definitely unfortunate for Joy, because as a whole, it's a really good album. Paul King is the type of artist, especially on this record, where it doesn't matter if he's swooning with a ballad, or bringing a heavy funk laid bass riff with a beat. He's delivering one hundred percent on them all, and you'd have to adamantly try to not get your ears invested.
Follow My Heart, Pass On By, One Too Many Heartaches, Star, It's Up To You, and So Brutal are all amazing tracks. Mind you, Slow Motion, and Glory's Goal aren't too shabby either. It's practically a perfect album.
With his solo career unsuccessful, King joined MTV as a VJ in 1989, moving on to VH1 in 1994. Eventually, he moved on to become the face of the Super Hits Of The 80's infomercials, pandering collections of hits to viewers. Just call 077-115 15 15 to order your CD today (yeah, don't call that number, I don't know where it goes these days). I'm not going to lie, I kind of want one. The track listing on those four discs is pretty boss!
Okay, I have one now. Ah...instant gratification. Well, not instant. It's coming from the UK, so maybe in a few weeks. But until then, the itch has been scratched. Now I just need to find something to listen to for tomorrow's post.
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