An unseen masterpiece!

What is it that just makes an album "work"? Whatever that secret ingredient is, Cliff Richard's "Green Light" has certainly got it. Each song is vibrant and exciting, the musicianship is exhilarating and passionate; (the band play with greater intensity and ardour than I have ever heard on a Cliff album) and the vocals are flawless, expressive, soulful, heart-wrenching. Cliff's voice has so much natural flair and resonance; in "Green Light", it varies from gentle and soothing ("Green Light", "Start All Over Again") to broken and tortured, ("Count Me Out", "Ease Along"), but always flows out with incredible ease and control. This album is also an excellent illustration of how Cliff can, within one song, dramatically alter both the pitch and tone of his voice. All this combines to produce a moving and poignant album, and if "Green Light" has one theme, it is, as the title suggests, the need, in a dicey or unstable situation, for the "green light" of reassurance; for instance "She's A Gypsy" is about an unhappy rich girl, and "Start All Over Again" portrays a discontented pop star. All in all, the songs have a wanting, searching, feel; how stirringly they communicate the tragedy of unfulfilled desire. All the agony of irrepressible love thwarted, threatened or denied ("Never Even Thought", "Can't Take The Hurt Anymore"), is expressed in the fervent instrumental accompaniments and above all in Cliff's skilful, spirited and penetrating vocals. Cliff's is one of the great voices, which can draw you into a song and take it to the inner reaches of the soul. So succumb to the magic of this long untouched, long undiscovered, long underrated box of treasures.