LARGELY ABANDONING THE PUNKY LEANINGS OF HER DEBUT, SELECT PURSUED A MORE SYNTH-DRIVEN SOUND SELECT

Released 1982 Label RAK Chart Positions UK No.19 NLD No.1

Kim avoided the sophomore slump, on a creative level anyway, by once again keeping things in the family. That’s not to say Select is simply a retread of what went before. Largely abandoning the punky leanings of her eponymous debut album, producer Ricky pursued a more atmospheric synth-driven sound which at times appeared to take its cues from the era’s electronic horror scores as much as his new favourite band Ultravox.

The pulsing Take Me Tonight, for example, even featured on the closing credits of Dario Argento’s giallo classic Tenebrae, albeit without the auteur’s knowledge. Chaos At The Airport, meanwhile, is an intriguing mixture of John Carpenter, Electric Light Orchestra and disaster movie, as Wilde loses her lover to some fatal plane turbulence.

The macabre theme continues on View From A Bridge,a deceptively dark New Wave banger in which a young girl commits suicide after discovering her boyfriend’s cheating ways. Then there’s the apocalyptic Action City (“The devil walks the streets/ Just as the flames of hell begin to grow”) and Top 20 standout Cambodia,a seven-minute epic which, contrary to popular belief, is not a political commentary but the tragic tale of a US Air Force pilot missing in action. Ricky and Marty appeared to be dealing with some stuff...

Opener Ego, a feisty kiss-off to an ex with clear commitment issues (“Your only plan it seems is look after number one/ You just can’t comprehend what it means to love someone”) whose driving rock chorus is the closest Select gets to Kim’s debut, is a little more in keeping with the mindset of an early 20-something. Likewise, the contrasting come-on of Can You Come Over, another perky throwback to the era when her father was gracing the charts. Unfortunately, the kids in America didn’t get the chance to hear this unusual mix of young melodrama and harrowing stories of loss, pain and cataclysm. Her label,

RAK Records decided against releasing the album across the other side of the Atlantic. Select fared much better back in the UK, however, and throughout Europe, topping the charts in both Finland and the Netherlands to firmly establish Kim Wilde as pop’s new ultimate ice queen.