LOVE MOVES

Released 1990 Label MCA Chart Positions UK No.37 NOR No.10

Kim unfortunately followed up her commercial zenith with an album that failed to spawn even one UK Top 40 hit, a first for a singer who had always been regarded as a singles artist.

Luckily, Wilde appeared to take the underwhelming response in her stride later acknowledging that her chart fortunes over the years often seemed to be unpredictable at best.

But it must have stung just a little considering how seventh album Love Moves was clearly designed to prove that the singer, now fast approaching her 30s, could grow with her audience.

Storm In Our Hearts, for example, is a fine stab at adult contemporary, boasting the kind of piano-led middle-eight that Bruce Hornsby would be proud to call his own.

In Hollywood is a slick piece of blue-eyed soul, which takes aim at the ridiculous world of showbiz (“Divorce, law courts/ Lawyers in their new sports car/ Lots of money spent/ The public making judgement”). And Top Of The Pops peer Jaki Graham and Wham! bassist Deon Estus lend a touch of class to the strings-soaked closer

I Can’t Say Goodbye.

Love Moves, which itself only just managed to scrape into the UK Top 40, doesn’t quite reach the same heights when it aims for the sounds de jour.

The half-hearted New Jack Swing of Love (Send Him Back To Me), one of four songs from Close collaborator Tony Swain, is more Paula Abdul B-side than dancefloor gold.

And while the environmental messaging of World In Perfect Harmony undoubtedly has its heart in the right place, its approach is a little after-school special (“Let’s think of the good things instead of all the bad/ We mustn’t give into a world that’s going mad.”) A proto-Greta Thunberg Kim was not. Nevertheless, the album’s highlight, the Belinda Carlisleesque Can’t Get Enough (Of Your Love), appeared to lay the groundwork for the latest career revival ahead.

Just like love, an 80s pop star’s chart fortunes can also move in mysterious ways.

LOVE

MOVES WAS DESIGNED TO PROVE THE SINGER, FAST APPROACHING HER 30S, COULD GROW WITH HER AUDIENCE