Which is the worst of these bands that I HATED in high school and still kind of do? Mike and the Mechanics, Cutting Crew, The Outfield, or Mr. Mister??

http://www.amalgama-lab.com/pict/bands/songs/m/mike_and_the_mechanics.png

http://cache.midivox.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Cutting-Crew.jpg

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/10733.jpg

how could you hate 'your love'?

could never get past his voice, song is so american rawk, ponderously telegraphs every last hook and riff

i think you will find a lot of love for the outfield here.

Only band i recognize from these ones is the outfield and im only acquainted with their two hits. 'Your love' is one of those few classic rock songs that still hasnt burnt out its initial appeal for me.

seems like the hooters should have been included too.

If we're judging only by these promo pics, they are all winners to me.

Silent Running & All I Need is a Miracle are ok, but not the kind of stuff I can listen to all the time.

I always forget that Cutting Crew isn't the name of a hip hop act.

seems like the hooters should have been included too.

Philly Boy Roy to thread.

There was a hair salon near where I grew up called Cutting Crew. If they were true to their inspiration, I'm sure it was Westmoreland County's top dispenser of bleached, feathered hairstyles.

aw, dem hooters

what are today's equivalent to these bands? do they exist?

Mr. Mister weren't even a band -- they were a lead singer and a bunch of synthesized instruments.

Let us also not forget: two #1 singles, another top ten, and a #1 album. Boy, they faded quickly.

Outfield Play Deep is surprisingly solid from start to finish

how is this not a poll?

i'm gonna go with the outfield because i have unfortunate childhood associations with all these other bands.

Outfield Play Deep is surprisingly solid from start to finish

I came in here to post this - it's basically "Your Love" over and over again, I'm actually surprised they're known as a one-hit wonder. Can't really vouch for the rest of their stuff though.

how is this not a poll?

dunno what i was thinking. guess the outfield would have taken it pretty easily, though

as "best", i mean.

yeah, shoulda done a poll to learn who is most loathed

The Outfield are not a one hit wonder though.

No idea about The Outfield. The rest are all OK. Not essential, but not horrible either.

Mr. Mister is the best of all these bands because I wore all my best jelly bracelets and put blue mascara in my hair and went to see them at the Delaware State Fair in 1986.

Cutting Crew is second best because that song is ridiculously fun to sing. The Outfield is okay because according to Wikipedia, their name is convolutedly derrivative of The Warriors. Therefore by process of elimination, Mike and the Mechanics is the worst.

HTH

None of these bands were as bad as Johnny Hates Jazz, Wet Wet Wet, Cats Can Fly, etc. "Broken Wings" still sounds really great.

I'll go with The Outfield based on the sound in my head - annoying vocal, too much compression in the mix. Surprised to learn this band is British.

you're so full of wrong: "Shattered Dreams" is more powerful than anything these deadbeats made!

what are today's equivalent to these bands? do they exist?

Pressing question that needs an answer stat.

Also, what genre are these bands? AOR? Pomp pop? The porridge Goldilocks forgot she chose?

It's a tie between The Outfield and Mr. Mister.

I Just Died In Your Arms and Silent Running (On Dangerous Ground) are quite good.

oh man! "I Just Died..." is probably the worst sung and recorded song in history.

By the way, I used to think Broken Wings was by Mike and the Mechanics. I have no idea why.

"she's lovin' by proxy" -- well, DUH, I would too if she had to fuck you!

Outfield "wins" this for me.

Mike & The Mechanics - Mike Rutherford was also in Genesis
Mr Mister - drummer anded up in King Crimson
Cutting Crew - singer later auditioned for Genesis, but lost out to that dork from Stiltskin

So The Outfield are the worst for having no prog credentials whatsoever. Not that I've heard them, being British.

"Broken Wings" is totally sleeves-rolled-up classic.

'Over My Shoulder' and 'Silent Running' are two of my least favourite songs ever so I'm voting Mike & the Mechanics. I don't think I've ever heard The Outfield.

Never heard of The Outfield either, listening to 'Your Love' now, it could have been created in a laboratory as the ultimate 80s American soft rock single (except for the middle eight where it inexplicably goes all Police). And they're British!

I also have never heard of The Outfield, I guess they must be one of those British acts that were better known in America.

I was getting Mr Mister and Mr Big confused and wondering why no-one was praising "To Be With You" ITT.

Can't imagine ever being in a situation where I would wonder that.

idk Alfred "I just died in your arms tonight/it must have been something you said" replicates the coked-up-and-young-in-a-nightclub feeling with a weirdly elliptical gravity

None of these bands were as bad as Johnny Hates Jazz, Wet Wet Wet, Cats Can Fly, etc

Johnny Hates Jazz were much better than any of them. "Turn Back The Clock" was one of the best albums of 1988.

OK, not much better than Mike + The Mechanics, who - even though not by any means as good as Genesis - had their moments.

i had the cutting crew album on on record, i was a 11 y/o top 40 fan

Frank Sinatra famously liked "Johnny Hates Jazz", well, maybe only their name.

I was obsessed with "I just died in your..." because it was always the soundtrack to those late night greatest hit comp commercials

'I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight' was banned by Radio 1 during the Gulf War

It's impossible to come up with a preppier band name than Cutting Crew, with "cutting" as s gerund. Also, worst of this list.

Contentious opinion : Cutting Crew were the band Joy Division could have been.

Outfield by far the worst of these. I still hate "Your Love" with a white-hot passion.

Mike + The Mechanics takes this one. Just the fact that "The Living Years" has been played at the funeral of at least one person means the world is a worse place because of this band.

Don't believe PP and Gavin
And everything they tell you
Believe in me, I'm with the high command

Thought of starting a thread about 80s pop with gospel choirs after hearing "The Living Years" at a supermarket.

I guess I don't know whether the choir in "The Living Years" is a gospel choir or a children's choir.

hought of starting a thread about 80s pop with gospel choirs after hearing "The Living Years" at a supermarket.

Go for it or I will.

Children's Choirs in Pop

modern equivalent = probably Train

Yeah Train is pretty close. But they're not...power poppy enough? The Outfield, at least, feel like a streamlining of The Knack or whoever.

all four suck equally

or equally suck

worst of these kind of has to be Mike & the Mechanics

I mean, I flat-out love Mr. Mister and have time for "I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight" and "Your Love". M&tM easily had the most embarrassing songs here even if I have a tinge of nostalgic fondness for "The Living Years"

Mike + the Mechanics

The only one of these fools' singles that gets a C- :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XamLT4cNKv8

ha I even like that one

I love Stakeout, this song made it a cooler movie, if that's possible.

ejrason32 1 year ago 5

Mr Mister were the coolest sexiest band there has ever been. And the most undervalued. Freakin' shame.

MrMisterMissy 1 year ago 8

I do wonder re: what are the modern version of these bands. They don't seem to be cited by anybody as any sort of influence, the perceived space they filled of vaguely anthemic/vaguely club-leaning was long since filled by things more focused or pumped-up or the like. Their at-the-time VH1ness has long since been replaced by a different set of earnest parameters. At most maybe it was late-eighties-soundtrack-closing-credits-rock or something. Hair metal may have settled in Nashville but this subset ended up...where?

I want to snarkily say Brooklyn but I don't think I can defend the argument, which would be along the lines of "this + Gang of Four = DFA"

pretty much every band featured in American Pie may be some version of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhCEhWiKXk&ob=av2e

They're all pretty brooding, though.

Bruno Mars is a good one.

Ned, that's a really interesting question... FWIW, I definitely think Mike & the Mechanics are clearly the worst of this shitquartet. I still like a couple of their songs, though.

Oh, and Johnny Hates Jazz shits on all these guys, it's true.

Hooters are totally in this "genre" as well; good call above. "Yeah, they were the Israelites!!!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LE0KpcP05I&ob=av2e

that jam was placed precisely like a block in a giant pyramid of timeless christian rock, carved with precision by alien lasers.

cutting crew "any colour" kind of rules???? recent discovery for me... love the guitar sound, like someone was equally influenced by Tom Scholz and The Edge, but trying to make a disco record, but with the kind of atmospheric soundscape and high male vocal everyone was going for post-Police...

also an important precursor to this stuff: Is there a name for that genre of turn-of-the-90s pop-rock with the positive vibes, huge guitar leads, and gated drums?

"one for the mockingbird" has the energy but is also kinda tiring - maybe betraying the limitations of their songwriting or their difficulty mixing up the dynamics within a song. activate the machine and it's full rhythmic steam ahead and full emotional intensity all the time. but I dig the sound.

I'll check that one out. Never been a fan of "Died in Your Arms" but I do love "I've Been in Love Before". I'm a sucker for that dreamy 80s guitar lead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMwtwd5KGaA

Ok "Any Colour" basically has that same lead tone. Nice tune, I may need to dig deeper

I didn’t know until today that Mr. Mister was half of the yacht rock group Pages

the smiths!

I'd say "Welcome to the Boomtown" by David & David and Dream Academy "Life In A Northern Town" kinda have that 80s synthy digital reverb huge sound too.

The Fixx kinda had this sound a bit earlier.

wow, "Been In Love Before" sure is lush in that same mid-80s studio way. these guys were really systematically covering the bases, huh? it's a little too sleepy for me, but clearly has its fans - the youtube comments are wall to wall "ahh, this takes me back to when music was pure and bands had real talent."

The Fixx is a good connection, esp the slower songs like Saved By Zero and Red Skies Tonight... whereas One Thing Leads To Another feels comparatively clean and stripped-down (despite the number of little sonic flourishes tossed around)... more in the general new-wave vein. like it basically sounds like someone trying to fuse "Let's Go" and "Rock the Casbah." love that song.