Hits: Best Of - Mike and The Mechanics > Reviews > The Original M&M

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Advantages:	All the best Mike and the Mechanics tracks
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Over a 10 year period Mike and The Mechanics have produced some fine music. Their Hits album contains all the singles from 1985 to the remixed ‘All I Need Is A Miracle’ in 1996. Mike is of course Mike Rutherford of Genesis fame and the concept of Mike and The Mechanics came from the stop-go nature of the later Genesis as Phil Collins pursued a parallel solo career and even dabbled in the old acting game.

The stop-go nature of Genesis also led to the same lack of continuity about Mike and The Mechanics. There have been periods of productivity with long gaps in between. Whether this has helped or hindered the band depends on your point of view. It can be argued they never allowed themselves to get stale or feel the pressures of having to record and release an album a year. Conversely you could argue they never built up a momentum or continuity to develop beyond a certain level. The gaps were sufficiently long however to mean that the band had to effectively relaunch itself every three years and to do so needed a good product to achieve it. This hits album confirms they achieved continued success with the strength of the songs.

Mike and The Mechanics were an ensemble band who used well known band members to combine on this infrequent basis. Rutherford was undeniably the founder and leader but in Paul Carrack he found the perfect voice for his lyrics. Carrack has a strong voice but not too overpowering for the sound Rutherford wished to create. The band also used Paul Young as a vocalist.

The bands sound was usually very polished. In many ways they are similar to what you would to hear from Don Henley or The Eagles. There is a distinct American feel and of course they were hugely successful there. The fact that many of the tracks like ‘Nobody Knows’ and ‘Time and Place’ lack the sharp edge of a Genesis track there is sometimes a feeling that the songs used as a Mike and The Mechanics track were Genesis rejects, somehow not good enough for the real band.

All the tracks have Rutherford credited as songwriter in combination with other writers. BA Robertson features as co-writer of many tracks as well as popping up on keyboards a couple of times. In fairness this means many of the better tracks such as the cathartic ‘The Living Years’ and the excellent ‘Silent Running’. Two tracks feature Carrack as the co-writer, the rather average ‘Get Up’ and one of the best tracks ‘Over My Shoulder’. The remainder feature Christopher Neil who penned ‘All I Need Is A Miracle’ as well as pouring out ‘Another Cup Of Coffee’.

The band musically can not be considered challenging. The production is neither understated nor over produced. They do sound a little clinical on occasion and just a shade lacking in feeling or emotions. It is music you can listen to as you drive along in the car, perhaps singing along but certainly unlikely to be getting overexcited. This is a good album and, if you have not collected the singles over the years, worth having as background music when friends are round.