Music Review: David Pack - Anywhere You Go (1985)
Anywhere You Go
I Just Can’t Let Go
Won’t Let You Lose Me
My Baby
That Girl Is Gone
She Don’t (Come Around Anymore)
Do Ya
Prove Me Wrong
No Direction (No Way Home)
Just Be You
Five years after the monstrous beauty that was Biggest Part Of Me and One Eighty, Ambrosia’s David Pack released his first solo effort, Anywhere You Go. When I first heard this record is a little fuzzy, I had suspected it was on the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack, but it was not. Somehow, the title track reached my ears and I consumed the rest of the record. I had safely assumed that it had radio play, but I’m not sure. Any of the tracks on it certainly would be at home there, which is a rare quality.
This record is probably big in certain circles but I have no way of verifying, plus I’m too lazy to look. At any rate the splash it made, for everywhere else, hasn’t been too big. Odd because, to me, this record is impeccable, every twist and turn and choice is satisfying, with a refined sonic palette; pristine front-to-back. Capitalizing on all the big, and the bigness, of the current pop rock sounds, synthesizers, with some soft rock elegance bleeding from the 70s, David Pack made a record that epitomizes 80’s West Coast AOR. The songwriting is really nice, and Pack’s soulful vocals retain the smooth qualities that beefed up all that Ambrosia gold.
<Three Songs on it +1>
“Anywhere You Go”
Doesn’t get any chunkier than this anthem of the ocean sunset.
“Won’t Let You Lose Me”
Propulsive, great chorus and riffy notation, it’s to the point where it’s so good I find it hard to describe.
“That Girl Is Gone”
With this, we helm the yacht. Alone however, since this is a wistful ode to a lost love of some kind. Very tasteful.
“Do Ya”
Do Ya has some of the biggest shredding on the record, as well as some more bonafide danceability. For a second at the intro, it reminds me of Haruomi Hosono’s Sports Men.