Comments for Black, Wonderful Life

Man, do I feel sad, I think I'm gonna hang myself. Even though this record is very melancholy, its a waste that he didn't break through. Has he ever made another cd ? If you know, e-mail me.

Wery good ! Excellent !

It is the case with many artists may go on to create works of superior quality, compared to their first album, this can be said of Black. However, it can also be maintained that an artist may never be able to recreate that raw feeling and energy they achieved in their first outing. This is the paradox of Wonderful Life. Colin Vearncombe, (who is essentially Black) has gone on to write far more skilfully penned songs, but he has never achieved that raw emotion, nor has he ever laid bare his soul to the same degree (to date anyway). This album has it all, optimism, anger, pain, love, joy, reminiscence, regret and sarcasm. This album is written by a very deep and clever person, don't fall into the trap of reading too little into each song. If you like your music well crafted, thoughtful and intelligent, buy this album. It is also a misconception that any of Black's material is melancholy or depressing. If the band were called “Sunshine” or “Windswept,” no one would make this association. The music, especially Wonderful Life is well crafted 'non-teenage' pop sung by one of the world’s most talented male singers.

Where else would you find a lyric like "I can count your saving graces on two fingers love, and sit on them!"?

Wonderful Life is indeed a special album. On the one hand it demonstrated how commercially popular Black could be despite the deep lyrics and artistic complexity that are inherently difficult to market to the masses. On the other hand, it is a testament to the ineptitude of the music industry in culturing and promoting great talent after an initial success. A&M Records, though managing to get Black widely recognized throughout Europe, totally bungled its marketing effort in the USA thus depriving Colin Vearncombe of a vast market that might have continued to fuel his success on subsequent albums. It would be similar, for example, if Sade had never captured a market in the US... sure, she might still have had a successful European music career, but it certainly would have deprived her of the significant financial rewards she realized upon cracking the American market as well. A&M simply did not know how to maximize Black''s potential, and the continued lingering effects of their mis-handling have seemed to haunt this artist''s follow up albums even today. Then again, I''m can''t completely regret the fact that so few people remember Black anymore. It allows me to feel like my choice for best male vocalist is more sophisticated and artsy than the current pop favorite of the the mass market. Who knows, if Black were as wildly popular as Elton John right now, I might have to find another more-underground favorite to make the same claim of being one step ahead of the rest of society.

Black is essentially a guy named Vearncombe and his backupmusicians. In some ways this is just jazzy pop, but it`sgot an edge on several songs, and Vearncombe`s melancholyvoice makes it worth listening to.