With all the wonderful music I experienced in my growing-up years and continue to re-experience even into my adulthood, I find myself still barely scratching the surface of a lot of music that was recorded way back in the 80's. That introductory sentence serves as the tie-in to my first feature of the Scottish pop/soft rock band called HIPSWAY. Like with HUE AND CRY, I've been aware of HIPSWAY's existence for many years, but hadn't ever been a faithful audience of their music until tonight. Wasn't sure where to start with these guys at first, but once I realized they've only released two albums in their short career, I decided to get their second one because I found the title "Scratch The Surface" to be attractive for this particular blog post. Might've chosen it anyway no matter how many albums they had released. But part of my motivation for listening to HIPSWAY at this juncture was because I'd read that they sounded similar to HUE AND CRY. So while I'm in the process of exploring more of that duo's music, I also wanted to treat myself to somebody new. Glad that I did, because I've just found my latest sparkling jewel in the treasure chest of lost 80's gems! The song entitled "Emerald" on Track #4 could just as easily have been called "Diamond" or "Ruby" or "Sapphire" or whatever expensive and precious gemstone you could think of, because it's a song with such luxurious quality—sound, lyrics and all! And while I'm at it, why don't I just go ahead and rename Track #6's "Handfuls Of Dust" to "Handfuls Of Gold" instead? It's just as luxurious as "Emerald"—one of those power ballads that ends with the full backing choir and one you just have to stop and listen to no matter what you're doing. Gotta have my jazz; it steps into play during a brief interlude on "Something Special" and during a very nice extended instrumental on the 7+ minute long title track, which itself is 'scratching the surface' of a diamond because it's a luxurious song as well. Then there's a couple of lively tunes that are fun to 'sway your hips' to—"Your Love" and "What Makes A Man Love A Woman So Bad?". The appraisal value of this album might not yet be worth much on the music market, but having a copy of it even in digital format would make any 80's music lover feel rich:
1. Show Me
2. Keepin' It Together
3. Your Love
4. Emerald
5. I'm Not Perfect
6. Handfuls Of Dust
7. Something Special
8. Wrong About That
9. What Makes A Man Love A Woman So Bad?
10. Scratch The Surface
11. Solid Gone
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