15. January 2025
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Media Review

Cutting Crew – Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Cutting Crew - Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven

Cutting Crew - Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven
2.3

Rating

 2.3/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • "(I Just) Died in Your Arms" and "I've Been in Love Before"
  • Some songs at the beginning are good
  • Nice arrangements with orchestra

Flyctory.com Cons

  • The album becomes extremely thin towards the end
  • Terrible reprise at the end of the album
  • Some tracks have hardly any orchestral sound

After two hits at the very beginning of their career, Cutting Crew could not keep up with their initial success. On 24th April 2020, they added another presence to the music market: with a new band setup, they released the album Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven. If you however feel like about a dozen of new songs, I unfortunately have to disappoint you: the album is in fact a best of album, but the songs are recorded in a new style with a philharmonic orchestra.

 

Cutting Crew – About The Artist

Cutting Crew was found in 1985 in London. Nick Van Eede, who initially had released some singles, formed the band with guitarist Kevin Macmichael. They added Colin Farley (bass) and drummer Martin Beele. Their debut album, Broadcast, was the highest success by the band – which was of course also driven by (I just) Dien in Your Arms, which reached Top 10 status in Germany, Ireland, the UK and Australia, while it even topped the Canadian and US charts. Broadcast also contained I’ve Been in Love Before. the only other Cutting Crew single, which made it to the general charts’ Top 10 of a major market (US #9, Canada #9). Also due to disputes, the band lost momentum. Even though there were scattered minor chart placements, no album or single came even close to that success. Finally, the band broke up in 1993.

In 2005, Van Eede formed the band Grinning Souls, which also recorded an album, Capture. Finally, he decided that the band should be new Cutting Crew band, with Van Eede the only original band member – Macmichael even had died in the meantime. The band never officially broke up, but the next release was a 2015 album, Add To Favourites. Apart from Van Eede, the band also featured Gareth Moulton from the 2005 setup. However, there were nine additional musicians – some of them rotated for live gigs. Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven is only the sixth album labeled as Cutting Crew.

 

Cutting Crew – Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven – Track by Track

The 2020 Cutting Crew album lasts 46 minutes and contains eleven tracks. I could unfortunately hardly find any music videos to the album:

1. Overture

The Overture is a two minute overture: an orchestral intro into the album. Towards the end, it clearly features (I Just) Died in Your Arms. I am not the right person to rate that stuff, so I just ignore it.

2. (I Just) Died in Your Arms

Here we go – the crew start with their classic. While I feel at the beginning like “Hmm, this sounds like a bit altered version of Cutting Crew – who is it”, I enjoy the orchestral elements while listening more and more. It is an awesome song – and the orchestra just adds something to it.

3. I’ve Been in Love Before

Classic Cutting Crew song, part II: the orchestral additions to I’ve Been in Love Before feel much more intense and sensible then at (I Just) Died In Your Arms. To me, this re-arrangement simply beats the big hit.

4. Everything But My Pride

The good thing about Cutting Crew is that even for quite some 1980’s and 1990’s music fans, they are in fact a two hit wonder. Thus, Everything But My Pride was like a new song to me, even though it is in fact a 1989 one. A really good song, the orchestral arrangement seems to fit quite well as well. So it is a good listen.

5. One for the Mockingbird

On the one hand, I like One for the Mockingbird – on the other hand, it has a lot of electric guitars – which naturally kills the powerful sound of the orchestra a bit. Whatever, this track is another question mark why this band just made it big to the charts twice… Their sound is not bad at all!

6. No Problem Child

These 5:35 minutes feel quite epic to me. I don’t know the original, it may not even be a really significant song – but the combination of 1980’s pop, rock elements and the orchestra lead to a great synergy. Thus, this track is one of the best arrangements of the whole album.

7. The Broadcast

The Broadcast arranged with an orchestra feels like an aria, a real classic concert event. Quite epic and impressive, but overall the song is too thin. It is not too bad to listen to this track – but you need to concentrate a bunch in order to memorize it.

8. Any Colour

I am more and more loosing touch on Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven. Any Colour is one of the songs, where you just have a very limited orchestral arrangement feeling – vocals, guitars and drums are just too dominating. Without knowing the original, you can exactly tell how it will sound like – the role of strings, brass and all the others is just too thin.

9. Climb Aboard

I asked above why Cutting Crew was just a one/two hit wonder. The longer the album lasts, the more it even gives you an answer to that question. What a shame – the band had and has so much potential, the arrangement of this song is not too bad and gives at least some stronger moments to the orchestra (though I would hope for more, especially due to the long guitar solo at the end). But Climb Abord is – at most – just an average song. Bad luck!

10. Berlin in Winter

I feel a bit sad to see idols of my musical youth fading away in eleven tracks more and more. There is definitely no touch of summer or any other positive emotion any more in this album when you reach this song. 2010 was the coldest winter of history in Berlin, 4.3 degrees below average over the whole time. Cutting Crew at least takes another ten and makes you freeze here.

11. (I Just) Died in Your Arms (Reprise)

The album concludes with a two minute soupy reprise, just vocals and orchestra, of the big one. The album would just be better without this track. Does it tell me that Cutting Crew is in fact really just a one/two hit wonder and they have to do their whole band life around this track. Big dislike here.

 

Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven – Spotify

Here is the Spotify widget for the 2020 Cutting Crew album:

 

Ransomed Healed Restored Forgiven – My View

In mathematics, there is a something called strictly monotonously decreasing – or for nomaal people: it is getting smaller and smaller. If I leave the intro and the completely unnecessary outro, which is definitely just spoiling, the album has some highlights at the beginning, but then more and more gets to an overall average performance. Bad luck, I just loved (I Just) Died In Your Arms and hoped there could be some big songs in this album. Finally, Cutting Crew could make an awesome EP out of this one, but as an album, it is too thin.

 

 

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