Chris+rea

La Passione is a novelty in the Chris Rea catalog, but a nice one at that. It’s a film soundtrack to a film he wrote but it sounds like a musical at times. With orchestral string movements mixed between familiar sounding Rea songs the overall is a relaxing lounge affair that even has guest vocals from the legendary Shirley Bassey on two numbers, making one a duet. It’s funny hearing Rea’s bluesy growl amid a sixties style orchestral sweep and although he’s no Tony Bennet it’s still pleasant. If you prefer the more pop/rock Rea then this is not the place to go but if like the cinematic atmosphere then it’s a nice detour and one of the strongest of his nineties albums.

Indeed, whatever happened to Benny Santini? The name that Magnet Records were considering using for their new solo signing but instead he went with his real name of Chris Rea, and Deltics was his second album after Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? and his first to reach the charts, althoug it didn't make much of an impact, only peaking at number 54 in the spring of 1979 – not the best time for an introspective singer/songwriter to crash the charts. Named after the British Rail class 55 of diesel locomotive trains that were built in the early '60s and were just about to be withdrawn from service, Rea showed his interest in various forms of transport that would continue throughout his recording career.

With the success of the band Incantation and ethnic South American music in 1982-1983, Chris Rea introduced his sixth album, Wired to the Moon, with the track "Bombollini," which was over six minutes of jungle-sounding drums and the haunting sound of pan pipes. The ethnic flavor continued on the second track, "Touché d'Amour," which was reggae in the unashamed style of lovers rock. However, Rea wasn't going to disappoint his fans altogether, small in number though they were in the U.K., having built a career over several albums of soft rock tracks and midtempo ballads with Dire Straits-style guitar breaks, and the rest of the tracks on Wired to the Moon fell easily into this category, especially "Shine, Shine, Shine" and "Holding Out," which were lovely emotive ballads.

Chris Rea was a rock star with the sort of gravel voice that was ideally suited to singing the blues, or was he a blues star who occasionally lent his talent to performing rock. The Road to Hell & Back was his 28th album in total including five different greatest-hits compilations, but was his first live album. Recorded at various venues during his 2006 tour from Warsaw to Moscow and Plymouth, Oxford and Brighton, all the tracks show a tight, together band, the Fireflies led by Chris Rea, not in the best of health but enjoying performing to appreciative, sometimes too polite audiences, who applaud in all the right places (at the end of each song).

Road Songs for Lovers is the twenty-fourth studio album by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released on 29 September 2017. Rea stated there was no initial intention to make a new album, but after a bad medical condition in 2016 he started to write new songs which eventually led to a band regroup, and first album release in six years. The songs were inspired by traveling on the road to London, seeing couples in cars and questioning the "people's love stories inside cars". According to Rea, most of the songs are about a boy-girl relationship in the car. He has stated that his favorite song is "Last Train", the lyrics of which are not about the typical meaning of the last train which goes home, but taking the last train in a desperate situation without knowing anything about its direction. Deluxe 2-Disc Set includes Bonus CD Live At The Montreux Jazz Festival, Saturday, July 5, 2014.

Chris Rea remained one of the best-kept secrets in the music industry, releasing five albums between 1979 and 1983, none of them reaching even the Top 50 in the charts. All were very well received by both the critics and the public who knew the secret. His secret was a brand of late-night rock that had an element of class, not dissimilar at this stage of his career to the early-'80s Dire Straits albums, but totally out of step, and proudly so, with the music of the time – new romantic, power and synth pop. He opened the album Water Sign with the song "Nothing's Happening by the Sea," which was so far laid back it was almost horizontal, with a harmonica instrumental break, and the album closed with a nod to synth pop on the track "Out of the Darkness." "Love's Strange Ways" was a similarly slow-moving Dire Straits-style number with an acoustic guitar picking out some notes throughout the song. "Let It Loose" had a driving rock beat, as did "I Can Hear Your Heartbeat," the only single taken from Water Sign.

With the success of the band Incantation and ethnic South American music in 1982-1983, Chris Rea introduced his sixth album, Wired to the Moon, with the track "Bombollini," which was over six minutes of jungle-sounding drums and the haunting sound of pan pipes. The ethnic flavor continued on the second track, "Touché d'Amour," which was reggae in the unashamed style of lovers rock. However, Rea wasn't going to disappoint his fans altogether, small in number though they were in the U.K., having built a career over several albums of soft rock tracks and midtempo ballads with Dire Straits-style guitar breaks, and the rest of the tracks on Wired to the Moon fell easily into this category, especially "Shine, Shine, Shine" and "Holding Out," which were lovely emotive ballads. Meanwhile, "Ace of Hearts," the title track, and the final song, "Winning," were soft rock numbers – almost MOR – crying out for daytime radio play or a top-selling commercial artist to cover them (but neither of these came about). Yet again, the record company released just one single from a Rea album.

Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? is the debut album by the British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released in 1978. The title of the album is a reference to a name Rea's UK record label (Magnet) had considered christening him with to make him sound more attractive commercially. The album peaked at number forty-nine on the Billboard Hot 200, and charted for 12 weeks. The first single lifted from the album, "Fool (If You Think It's Over)", remains his biggest hit in the United States, peaking at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100, charted for 15 weeks, and reaching number one on the Adult Contemporary Singles chart, and charting for 18 weeks.

‘One Fine Day’ was originally recorded in 1980 at Chipping Norton Studios and was produced by Rea himself. Never officially released as a single body of work, a limited run of 1000 brings together this collection of songs for the very first time. Some of the tracks have never been released before whereas other re-recorded versions have appeared on various albums and as b-sides.