Silver (Remastered)

Cliff Richard's Silver, recorded to commemorate his 25th anniversary in music, is a fairly solid if slightly inconsistent piece of early-'80s pop/rock, tinged with elements of funk and soul. Some of it is a little too languid, or predictable, or just plain tuneless for its own good, but there are also some eminently danceable tracks that might've been handled just as well by the late-'70s Bee Gees — "Never Say Die (Give a Little Bit More)," the single off of the album, and "Silver's Home Tonight," "Baby You're Dynamite," and "The Golden Days Are Over," are enjoyable later-era Richard rockers, and balance nicely with the gorgeous ballads "Ocean Deep" and "Please Don't Fall in Love." While some of the rest seems predictable and rather clunky, other tracks, such as "Love Stealer," show valiant (if not really successful) attempts by Richard to generate a harder rocking sound. The album was reissued on CD in 2002 with two bonus tracks, both previously unanthologized B-sides from the same sessions — "Too Close to Heaven," which is a ballad with a hard electric guitar part that's as good as anything on the original LP, and "Lucille," done in a strange arrangement that runs from minimalist synthesizer accompaniment to full band with outsized percussion, all keeping a slow, funky beat. [The CD was remastered and reissued in 2002.]