Man on the Line

Man on the Line Artist: Chris de Burgh
Category: Music


Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Format: Import
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 075026998525
EAN: 0075026998525
ASIN: B00005B7YM


Release Date: 2007-02-20

Man on the Line


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General General
Categories | Rock | Styles | Music
Pop Rock Pop Rock
Categories | Pop | Styles | Music
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Categories | Adult Contemporary | Pop | Styles | Music
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Tracks:

  1. Ecstasy of Flight (I Love the Night)
  2. Sight and Touch
  3. Taking It to the Top
  4. Head and the Heart
  5. Sound of a Gun
  6. High on Emotion
  7. Much More Than This
  8. Moonlight and Vodka
  9. Man on the Line
  10. Transmission Ends

Similar Items:

  1. The Getaway

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars Overlooked.......2005-09-13

"Man on the Line" is one of the most overlooked releases in Chris de Burgh's back catalogue, which is both understandable and unwarranted.

Understandable because "Man on the Line" is a blatant and failed attempt to move into the mainstream and expand on the modest US success of "The Getaway" in 1983 (that album reached #43; "Don't Pay the Ferryman" reached #34 on the Billboard singles chart, and "Ship to Shore" reached #71). Producer Rupert Hine pulled out all the stops for "Man on the Line," recruiting his other clients to appear the album. Howard Jones plays keyboards on "The Head and the Heart"; Tina Turner does a vocal on "The Sound of the Gun." Fully half of "Man on the Line" is in the same exact vein as "Don't Pay the Ferryman," and thus represents a deviation in de Burgh's repertoire, which has featured adult-contemporary synth-based pop and period-oriented storytelling material, despite an odd rock song here and there. Nevertheless "Man on the Line" failed to perform, reaching only #69 on the album chart. "High on Emotion" missed cracking the Top 40, peaking at #44.

Unwarranted because, with the exception of the very generic "Taking It To The Top," these are actually solid rock numbers with some teeth, featuring driving beats, sharp horn lines, and bright production that nevertheless doesn't overwhelm the songs. (This is something that has tended to happen with his later material, where the songwriting remains strong but the instrumentation seems less personal, somehow.) There's actually some anger here; it's not all frothy romance. And, one of de Burgh's very best ballads is nestled in the middle of the record, a quiet piano-and-vocals number called "The Head and the Heart." "Much More Than This" is almost as worthy, and while his trademark storytelling is weaker than usual on "Sight and Touch" and "Moonlight and Vodka," the songs nevertheless hold their own.

Music Album:

  1. Live in Anvers ~ Alex Chilton
  2. Heathen Chemistry ~ Oasis
  3. Confidential ~ The Eyeliners
  4. Barbie Girls ~ Various Artists
  5. Idejala ! ...Esta Triste ~ Retrovertigo
  6. A Great Inhumane Adventure ~ Present
  7. Mother
  8. Highway 61 Revisited ~ Bob Dylan
  9. Remixes ~ Dannii
  10. Master Hits: The Alan Parsons Project ~ Alan Parsons Project

Music Album

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Music CD

Live at Yoshi's ~ Oregon

It's Krunch Time ~ Roy Campbell Quartet

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Les Incontournables ~ Charles Mingus

Plays Winter Jazz with Rebecca Kilgore, Vol. 2 ~ Tall Jazz

New Trolls ~ New Trolls

Anthologie V.2 ~ Charlots

Tabapora ~ May East

Music from China & Taiwan ~ Various Artists

Antigravity ~ Warren Senders