After twenty-eight years in the industry, one couldn’t blame Texas for taking a little time out to just enjoy their abilities and politely revel in their status as purveyors of the finest pop music—they did exactly that in 2017 with their ninth LP, Jump on Board. The craftsmanship Texas embraced on that impressive raft of tunes was misread by some reviewers as a creative malaise, but the occasional critical misunderstanding was nothing new for the band.
It turned out that the reflective posture of Jump on Board wasn’t the symptom of stagnation, it was a mindset inspired by a larger event looming on the horizon: the thirtieth anniversary of Southside (1989). That debut offering—beautifully soused in country, blues and album-oriented-rock—began everything for Texas. To celebrate the long player, the group ventured back into their archives in 2019 to search for something special to share with fans. Several Southside treasures were discovered. However, a greater goldmine was unearthed: a cache of unfinished recordings for White on Blonde (1997); their fourth release is one of the Scottish act’s definitive milestones.
Sharleen Spiteri and Johnny McElhone—the nucleus of Texas—determined that this shelved material was too good to leave unfinished. A restoration was initiated but then incidentally spurred Texas on to draft original material for Hi, their tenth studio album—the resulting product is a richly detailed pop affair produced in expert fashion by McElhone.
Several sonic elements are active on Hi which include (but are not limited to) vintage R&B (“Just Want to Be Liked”), authentic country (“Moonstar”), brawny guitar-pop (“Sound of My Voice”) and Italo-western decadence with a spicy hip-hop twist (“Hi”). And then there is the undeniable highlight of the record in the form of “Mr. Haze,” a robust Motown homage whose soulful strut is borrowed from Donna Summer’s 1977 British charter “Love’s Unkind.” None of these stylistic endeavors are foreign to Texas given past projects—but there is a newfound luxuriousness within their genre experimentation on this long player that dazzles.
All the pieces are ravishingly smithed from a mix of studio craft and live instrumentation that is executed by both a supporting team of session musicians and Texas themselves: Michael Bannister (keyboards, programming), Eddie Campbell (lead keyboards), Ally McErlaine (guitar), Tony McGovern (guitar). These four men—along with Spiteri and McElhone on guitar and bass guitar respectively—imbue each of Hi’s twelve tracks (fifteen on the deluxe iteration) with the passion and dexterity Texas has come to be known for.
Essential to the vitality of Hi is Spiteri’s voice, she is as soulful as ever with “Unbelievable,” “You Can Call Me” and “Had a Hard Day” best capturing the inimitable nuance, tone and color of her instrument. Spiteri also demonstrates how exquisitely her voice functions when matched against someone else; three guests that have history with Texas appear on this collection: singer-actress Clare Grogan (on “Look What You’ve Done”) and the Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and Ghostface Killah (on “Hi”).
Ms. Grogan’s association with McElhone dates back to their shared time within the ranks of the indie-pop outfit Altered Images who were active from 1979 to 1983. Grogan’s icy approach contrasts beautifully with Spiteri’s warmer tones on “Look What You’ve Done.”
Previously, Texas had partnered with the Wu-Tang Clan’s Method Man and RZA back in 1997 on the “All Day Every Day” remix of their already gold-selling White on Blonde single “Say What You Want.” Here, it is Ghostface Killah that joins RZA to spit a few dapper bars for “Hi”—the title track pairs up awesomely to the prior tag-team between the two parties.
It cannot go without saying that the ever-topical chestnut of romantic love fuels the lyrical narratives contained on Hi—Texas is careful not to slip into the saccharine and keeps everything emotionally resonant and story-like, so as to take hold of the listener on that first spin and never let them go. The mass of the long player is penned by McElhone and Spiteri, but they’re joined on “Dark Fire” by lauded British writer Richard Hawley. That McElhone-Spiteri-Hawley composition is one of the strongest cuts present on Hi, yet “Had to Leave,” the closer on the deluxe edition, goes a step further in pulling at one’s heartstrings with its simple, effective script.
Texas is in red-hot form on Hi—ten records in and they’ve lost none of their artistic drive or technical proficiency that assisted in setting them apart from the crowd back in 1989. Regardless of its commercial fate, Texas have made an album that they can not only be proud of, but that will age to perfection in the ensuing years to come, losing none of the potency it holds now.
Notable Tracks: “Had to Leave” | “Just Want to Be Liked” | “Look What You’ve Done” | “Mr. Haze”
BUY Hi from Texas’ Official Store
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