Music From the Edge of Heaven

by

Wham!

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The musical world was really going through a transition in 1986. Oh, and so was I, as I just graduated high school, and one of the things that surprised me was that Wham! was breaking up. I bought their swansong album, Music From The Edge Of Heaven, which seemed more a prelude to George Michael's solo career, as two songs are credited to him rather than Wham!.

The catchy title song shows less soul but more straight pop overladen with trumpet, trombone, and sax. Deon Estus's throbbing bass also contributes heavily. This song veers towards the lust end of the spectrum rather than the love songs on Make It Big.: "I'm a maniac at the end of the day" and "There's a place for us in a dirty movie/'Cos no-one does it better than me and you." And I can barely hear Elton John's piano here.

The frustrated love song "Battlestations" is accusatory, as the girl is accused of hiding behind her answerphone, and the guy even goes as far as opening her diary. A real relation on the rocks. And the cold finishing touch has the girl saying in French that money is her new best friend, so goodbye. Charming story, huh?

"I'm Your Man" is presented in an eight minute plus extended version instead of the single-version. It's a return to the funky soul that characterized Make It Big. After about 1:22 of synths, drums, and even racing car noises, the single proper begins. It's got a catchy and fun beat, but there's a great amount of braggadocio and no love involved: "I don't need you to care/I don't need you to understand/All I want is for you to be there/.../I'm your man." Really romantic, huh?

A really case of a partying slacker with bad attitude who'd rather have fun than a job characterizes the bass and horns funk jam of the immature "Wham! Rap '86." Michael raps some verses, and sings on the chorus. And who would imagine George Michael would sing "C'mon everybody, don't need this cr*p"?

George Michael's first solo single hit #7 in the US and either #1 or #2 in the UK, showing he had potential solo career potential. "A Different Corner" is one of the best things I've heard from him. It's a haunting regret song with bass and light airy keyboards and shows his vulnerable side. "Take me back in time maybe I can forget/turn a different corner and we never would have met" he sings at one point. Tie that with "And if all that there is is this fear of being used/I should go back to being lonely and confused/If I could, I would I swear" and you get the gist of this song. Lonely and confused is something I'd pick given my sensitivity.

The next number that's very personal to me," says George in introducing the live "Blue." The narrator here is a hollow husk after being deserted, saying he laughs and smiles less, and even needs someone to tell him where his heart is. He repeats "Can't you see I'm falling apart?"

The nightclub European jazz-like cover of Was (Not Was)'s "Where Did Your Heart Go" is another standout cut, due to Andy Hamilton's wailing sax. Things really sink to despair, when the river "calls out my name/Says 'put your troubles down beside me.'" and the narrator jumps into the river's beauty.

Another song about a delicate and crushed heart set to a well-paced bass and keyboard beat, "Last Christmas" is another George Michael solo. As he says, "This year, to save me from tears/I'll give it [my heart] to someone special."

Despite some upbeat and heartfelt numbers, there's nothing charming or romantic here on this album, nothing like "Freedom" or "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go." It's just one case of bad love, frustration, and loneliness after another, and it mirrors the dissolution of the duo's partnership. George Michael made a few more significant marks in pop history, while Andrew Ridgeley married Keren Woodward of Bananarama, and backup singers Pepsi & Shirlie released one solo album which spawned two big hits in the UK, but Wham! primarily served as a vehicle for George Michael's career.

This album, the final release of WHAM!, has a very 'pieced together' feeling to it. It is easy to tell that George and Andrew were no longer working as a group as most of the new tracks have a definite George feel to them. Of the tracks, there are a few songs which were previously released with nothing to do with this album ("I'm Your Man", "Last Christmas", "A Different Corner", "Wham Rap") leaving only a handful of "new" material. The first "new" single, "The Edge of Heaven" has sort of a sixties feel to it, and still manages to beckon the earlier WHAM! hit "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go". The second, "Battlestations" is a bit of a departure from WHAM!, having more of an electronic feel to it than most WHAM! songs. The rest of the album sounds like a George Michael afterthought. Perhaps songs he was auditioning for 'Faith' but wisely turned down. At either rate, this was definitely the end of WHAM!, the end of the innocence, and the end of an era.