In Praise of Moody Midtempo AOR

don't know him really, any particular songs?

great post pre-funk

Yeah, love the case for the fade-out there.

John Waite's "Missing You" is a fun version of this, with the unreliable narrator having written an AOR song and hired the backup singers, and then he realizes how much he really does miss his woman as the background singers stick to their charts and keep doing their job.

Certainly female equivalents are fewer and far between

that's interesting - I think Concrete Blonde played in this space a bit? Like this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlg91FG9m5Y

but as suggested somewhere above the most potent words/music alchemy with this kind of track comes from the music being allied to a kind of "keeping a lid on my emotions but you can tell I'm suffering" masculine resolve

don't know him really, any particular songs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXm_1lWwD8Y

The Road to Hell is the tune I first heard by him back in the 90s. Similar territory to like some Dire Straits, but more weary voice and more lush soft rock backing at times. Never really hear much more until Youtube and by comments seems that Chris Rea is fairly popular in Russia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUUdQfnshJ4

ok wow the road to hell and especially that video gets to the core of this thread more than anything I've seen

Always wondered which came first: Rea’s “The Road to Hell” or Leonard Cohen’s “The Future” (with Dylan’s “Things Have Changed” coming later but similar too).

I always get Chris Rea confused with Chris Stamey. Probably because they both have the first name "Chris."

yeah that's a tough one, very uncommon name

I gather he's also a different person than Chris deBurgh? (Does "Don't Pay the Ferryman" fit this?)

Actually, the title track to Chris Stamey's It's Alright, from 1987, might fit this genre.

Ha, holy shit, I now remember hearing "The Road to Hell" in 1989 but don't think I've heard it since then. Not sure if I ever knew who it was by.

It might have just merged with "The Future" in my memory.

I think Chris Rea has a cool singing voice. He does some love songs kinda like later period Joe Cocker, who has some tunes that sound like they would fit this thread. Their singing voices have that gravitas just in the growl.

Don't Pay the Ferryman is like cocaine tempo, maybe 145 bpm?

Yeah, ha, I didn't listen just before posting.

Holy shit, that Chris Rea song is totally like Dire Straits covering "The Future."

It was released three years earlier, apparently.

Chris Rea has recently decided to form a band with Dire Straits; they're going to be called...

One of the truly great things about being middle-aged is being able to tell shit jokes with absolute impunity.

haha

After all these years, I finally learn it's pronounced "Ree Ahh", and not "Ray."

Plop of Life

I keep thinking an 80s Rush song should fit but Rush might be too distinctive, their inherent Rush-ness

"Subdivisions" kinda fits? But the message of the song is too apparent, too high school obviously, moody midtemp AOR more adult

I suggested "Limelight" upthread but I'm not sure it does fit with the direction the thread has gone in.

The closest might be something like Middletown Dreams from power windows.

yeah PW is probably the closest...Rush ultimately are too wholesome for this tbh

Surprised to see no mention of this, which is the moody midtempo AOR track that other moody midtempo AOR tracks refer to as The Guv'nor.

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

If we were to split this into sub-genres, this would be Moody Power Pop AOR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SCzVEUlqqA

Did anyone cover Traffic's "Dear Mr. Fantasy" between 1978 and 1988?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxVlN-LzIks

driver’s seat definitely counts

Art bell played a lot of this stuff as bumper music

BOC was mentioned upthread and I just remembered the one that should be on this: "Shooting Shark"

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

also -- jeeeeeez how could I have forgotten Mike + the Mechanics - "Silent Running" a classic of the genre

some of my favourites:

talk talk - living in another world
chris isaak - wicked game
robert palmer - you are in my system
pat benatar - love is a battlefield
the fixx - saved by zero

From the “Sunset Grill” comments, nailing the genre:

Mic Norton
..but it sounds like a place,, once you fit in you CAN'T LEAVE psychologically,, Henley sounds resigned to hangin "watching the basket people" lol but the synth seems to communicate MAROONED to me...just my opinion, y' understand...
1 year ago

Ooh, Wicked Game ... hmm. I wonder what that would sound like with a big compressed drum beat instead of brushes?

shit

“One Headlight” is a latecomer...and yes to “Saved By Zero” and “Love Is A Battlefield”!

okay getting spotify suggestions now this one is PERFECT

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANb1AA35o9I

Neanderthal OTM

HIM did cover "Wicked Game" with big compressed drums and distorted guitars, though, if you wanted to hear what that sounds like.

rare country song that touches on this feel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho3zVZe8Ksc

forgot that song, wow

Okay made Spotify playlist of the stuff I thought qualified on this thread. I'm prejudiced against anything with a 70s feel tbh so not much of that stuff made it, felt yacht rock to me mostly except Rafferty.

Tried to adhere to the Crockett Rule...can I imagine Sonny Crockett driving around to it at midnight in Miami

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/17ioxB7tYdJvbZFaMksZFi?si=uXxdwr1eTQa3RMGmVV0P5g

Thanks for putting that together! ^^

I wish B.B. King's contribution to the genre was better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krJrurPr3Yo

Ooh, Wicked Game ... hmm. I wonder what that would sound like with a big compressed drum beat instead of brushes?

I guess there's that xx song that sounds like Wicked Game, right?

Someone mentioned Robert Cray, and there's definitely some earlier stuff that sort of fits. Like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP2EvSNHqh0

Wow, that Rod Stewart song totally fits. And the Milsap, good find!