Cutting Crew

With a sound that helped define the 1980's music scene and a presence amongst popular culture which has seen them appear across TV, film and video games, Cutting Crew return with a stellar album, Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven featuring their best-loved songs recreated in a completely new style. Now with the added emotion and power of a full philharmonic orchestra, vocalist, Nick Van Eede and long-time Cutting Crew guitarist, Gareth Moulton, look to both their die-hard fanbase and new generations of 80's acolytes to enjoy tracks which just refuse to get old! The band continues to tour the world to rapturous receptions, with very recent visits to Mexico, Canada, Australia and Japan reinforcing their global popularity. Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven is a welcome reminder of a band who have always delivered beautiful, classy anthems for the past four decades.

Cutting Crew never deserved the hacking they received from critics. Music reviewers lined up to throttle Cutting Crew's debut album, Broadcast, when it was released in 1986. The slick guitar rock on Broadcast may not have wowed the rock & roll intelligentsia, but it's a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, an underrated collection of simple, heartfelt love songs and up-tempo pop that reside between the stylistic boundaries of new wave and mainstream rock. "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" and "I've Been in Love Before" immediately thrust Cutting Crew onto the U.S. charts; however, both songs aren't sufficient in summing up Broadcast's appeal. Nick VanEede's soulful croon is mesmerizing on "Any Colour" and "Sahara"; instead of bludgeoning the microphone with vocal histrionics common to late '80s rock, VanEede is thankfully restrained, imbuing every track with ample emotion.

By the time Cutting Crew released their second album in 1989, they were viewed as irrelevant by both critics – who always despised them anyway – and the fickle public that elevated "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" and "I've Been in Love Before" onto the pop charts two years earlier. The cold shoulders which welcomed The Scattering were most likely due to the lack of immediately catchy songs; nevertheless, while The Scattering doesn't have ear candy like the band's hit singles, the music is less-blatantly commercial and more personal. It's still slick stuff – big '80s synthesizers, glossy FM radio guitars, in-your-face drums – but Nick VanEede's vocals have a frosty glow that creates a mood and sustains interest.

Featuring 52 tracks, this box set contains the three studio albums Cutting Crew recorded between 1986 and 1992, the Grammy nominated debut, Broadcast (1986), acclaimed follow up, The Scattering (1989), and the ripe for rediscovery, Compus Mentus (1992), plus B sides, remixes and demos. It's been Cutting Crew's fate to be primarily remembered for their enormous, multi- million selling international hit, '(I Just) Died In Your Arms', and that's here in two versions, but this box set shows that there's much more to the band, whose driving pop- rock is defined by strong song writing, Nick Van Eede's soulful vocals and Kevin MacMichael's lead guitar.

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