Christopher Cross - Crossed Words II

 A long time ago, think it was in late 2011, I talked about Christopher Cross, while looking a series of potentially interesting double compilation compact discs that grabbed my attention for the variety of songs and breadth of coverage of an artists career.

This came into beginning because through one period of my life I couldn't afford every record that caught my fancy and one of the notebooks that came to life last year was an indication of how I noted down the artists and songs with the aim that at some point I'd get them.

Things have changed over decades and more over I'm more interested in having favourites on vinyl and so I bought used the American first pressing of Christopher Cross's first album issued late December 1979 so really ought to seen as a 1980 fixture which it was selling well in the U.K. and in the U.S. 

This was the album that introduced us to Sailing and Ride Like The Wind.

The follow up for some strange reason didn't sell quite as well although listening to it this weekend I don't see it musically and lyrically a lesser album, I mean you have such luminaries as Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys on backing vocals on Baby Says No, two Eagles members and a lot of top session players on board too.

My copy is the West German which *should* have the original American metal work to stamp out copies on.

This album coming after the 1981 hit Arthur's Theme from the great Dudley Moore film and sound track introduced is to No Time To Talk, All Right and Think Of Laura used in the tv soap General Hospital in 1983.

These albums were recorded digitally on multitrack equipment - enough to make Mr. Hifi Bore just outside his local Linn, Mission and Rega dealer get into a mega rant about the evils of digital - and these albums are extremely well recorded with lots of dynamics and the most amazing mids to speak of making Christopher feel as if he's in your room.

They would even make perfect hifi demonstration discs they do sound that good.

Listening to them was an absolute pleasure where the songs, the performers and the sound come all together.

For what you can pick these up for used, they're well worth owning on vinyl if you have a decent turntable.