Kim Wilde

Now & Forever is the ninth studio album by Kim Wilde, released in 1995 via MCA Records. After three albums featuring a consistent pop sound, Wilde decided it was time for another change and chose to make an album with a decided soul/R&B feel to it. Ricky Wilde still produced, but joined forces with CJ Mackintosh for four of the album's tracks and co-produced with the Serious Rope team for seven others.

Kim Wilde's sixth album is the first since the commercially viable but artistically weak artistic makeover that began with 1984's Teases and Dares to approach the quality of her first three albums. For the first time in three albums, Wilde sounds as if she's comfortable with the music she's making; that this music is clearly inspired by the chart success of the Stock-Aitken-Waterman production team, then having enormous hits with Bananarama, Kylie Minogue and others, might seems a little calculated, but it must be said: Stock, Aitken & Waterman had huge hits because they made unapologetically catchy, uncomplicated pop singles, and that's never a bad thing…

Kim Wilde's number one cover of the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" gave her a number one hit back in 1987, but she gained chart life five years earlier with the glitzy bounce of "Kids in America," allied with the new decade's keyboard-laden pop sound and peaking at number 25 on Billboard's Top 40. The Singles Collection 1981-1993 is easily the most opportune avenue available to investigate the rest of Wilde's material. While video may have been her best friend throughout her career, sporting her attractive looks and modest Brit attitude, Wilde's music does contain some pleasing dance hooks and catchy melodies. "Another Step (Closer to You)" and "Love Is Holy" are bright and lively with typical yet congenial pop melodies, while "You Came" mixes a clean, keyboard-aided backdrop to Wilde's sheer vocal style. "Chequered Love" and "Water on Glass" aren't genius, but their arrant pop melodies and simplistic beats are anything but standstill.

The daughter of '50s British pop singer Marty Wilde, Kim Wilde had several hits during the '80s. Initially, her synth-driven pop fit in with the new wave movement, but as the decade progressed, it became clear that her strength was mainstream pop. She continued to record into the 21st century, scoring the occasional hit, either in the dance or adult contemporary field. She first saw success in 1981 with her debut single "Kids in America", which peaked at No. 2 in the UK. In 1983, she received the Brit Award for Best British Female solo artist. In 1986, she had a UK No. 2 hit with a reworked version of the Supremes' song "You Keep Me Hangin' On", which also topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1987.

Kim Wilde's second album didn't score any hits on the level of the debut's "Kids in America," although the dramatic "Cambodia" was a sort of cult favorite in some circles. That said, it's a far better album than the patchy debut; the songs, again by brother Rikki Wilde with occasional collaborations by father Marty Wilde, don't have the bubblegum tinge that colored much of 1981's Kim Wilde. The arrangements are more synth-oriented, at times approaching the dark atmospherics of Japan or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. The occasionally melodramatic lyrics cover topics like police brutality and paranoia – unsurprisingly, new insights aren't much in evidence – and even the love songs, like the delicate "View from a Bridge," aren't exactly happy. The overall vibe of this album is so chilly that the one basically upbeat song, "Can You Come Over," sounds really out of place, but overall, it works. Wilde sings with a clinical detachment here that suits her voice quite well; whenever Wilde tries to emote musically, the results sound forced and melodramatic, but her icy edge on this album is surprisingly appealing.