Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

It could be argued that the flourishing appearances of the artist’s complete works in boxset form is down to age, to nostalgia, and dare it be mentioned, the possibility of exploitation by the companies that may own the rights to the music, to the songs that certain generations came to hang their love and dreams upon. Perhaps this is more prevalent now for Generation X and those that came into their own musically during the period of the 70s and 80s, for not a week seems to go past where a hero of the age is repackaged in all their glory for the masses to soak up the sound, the memory allowed to resurface, and the years, those decades between, once more attended to in full glorious colour.

To not be cynical is the path we might walk down, to enjoy the beauty of restored youth in our hands as we delve and search for the missing frame in the musical picture show we have in our mind, and as the immense set of information comes our way in the Nik Kershaw: The MCA Years boxset, those of an 80s disposition can sit in comfort and immerse themselves in an abundance of music by one of the true icons of the age, one who seemed to appear as if by magic into the mix, and like a lot of his contemporary’s such as Howard Jones, the pop star found the zeitgeist and presented it in such a way that the grass seemed greener for all.

The ten-disc boxset includes the first four studio albums, Human Racing, The Riddle, Radio Musicola, and The Works, a plethora of remixes and B sides, and a rare opportunity to soak in the ambience of an evening at The Hammersmith Odeon in 1984 spread over two discs. From the breakout single, sadly still prophetic in the current age, of I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me and its subsequent reissue, through tracks such as Dancing Girls, the excellent Elisabeth’s Eyes, Wide Boy, Don Quixote, and B sides that added atmosphere and reason to the cannon, Dark Glasses, Monkey Business, and Don’t Lie, Nik Kershaw’s early output matches and rivals anything from the same pop genre, one filled with deeply layered lyrics, the work of a man dedicated to the craft of writing sensitive and alluring words.

To have an entire day to attend to such a sizeable boxset, one of nostalgic freedom and wonder, is to feel a glimpse of delight in a world beset by issues that have not changed in fifty years, indeed only the suits have changed colour, only the devils have changed sides.

An incredibly decent boxset delivered with authority, Nik Kershaw: The MCA Years is an icon in itself.

Ian D. Hall