Details
Track Listing
1. Higher Love
2. Take It as It Comes
3. Freedom Overspill
4. Back in the High Life Again
5. Finer Things, The
6. Wake Me up on Judgement Day
7. Split Decision
8. My Love's Leavin'
Album Notes
This was the 1987 Grammy winner for best engineered non-classical recording.
More meticulously crafted than its predecessor ARC OF A DIVER, and more musically adventurous than its follow-up ROLL WITH IT, BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE represents the pinnacle of Steve Winwood's '80s pop output. High production values, interlocking percussion lines, R&B backing vocals, horns, synthesizers and ideas borrowed from various world musics enhance and update Winwood's proclivity for blues, R&B, and rock. His distinctive, blue-eyed soul vocals are, naturally, at the front of the mix as well.
The runaway Number One single, "Higher Love," with its syncopated groove, pan-African percussion, and slick Top-40 production, kicks off this accessible set. Elsewhere, the dance-gospel of "Wake Me Up on Judgment Day," the semi-acoustic title track, and the funk-touched "Split Decision" (which proves Winwood's R&B roots are still strong) keep the stylistic wheel turning. The record's success, sonically and commercially, should come as no surprise. Since his days in Traffic, Winwood has been a masterful stylistic synthesist, melding a range of aesthetics in ways that invariably connect with listeners. BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE is further proof of his remarkable abilities.
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