I'm coming out...

[Det. Jimmy McNulty]

I still love this album.

People give me strange looks when I mention this album. "So, McNulty. Heard the new Vampire Weekend album?" "Nah, been listening to Steve Winwood's 'Back in the High Life.'"

There are three people in the world who I wish I was born with similar pipes:

Ed Vedder
Steve Winwood
Spencer Krug from Wolf Parade

Winwood's voice is absolutely timeless. Sure, BITHL was your stereotypical 80's synth pop album, a total adult contemporary favorite. I remember hating this album when I was younger because my parents used to play it so often. But it's so ****ing GOOD! Can't even consider it a guilty pleasure. The pleasure is all mine. I love the African influence and I've always been a sucker for synthesizers. Freedom Overspill = awesome. Finer Things? All-time epic Winwood classic. Higher Love? **** yeah. Even the title track is good. "All the doors I've closed one time have opened up again." Totally inspirational. Pat Bateman could have substituted BITHL for Phil Collins' "Sussudio" and it would have been just as funny.

Sure, it's not as compelling as his earlier work or his Traffic stuff, but it's still great on its own merits. I just might be the only 28 year old in Washington who has been listening to Back in the High Life. Rack me.

 

[Care Bear]

Is the name Patrick Bateman on your business card?

 

[YankeeFan]

Steve Winwood doesn't even like that album.

 

[dooley_womack1]

I'm sensing the low spark of high-heeled boys.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

No one in the band ever matched the material of Blind Faith by themselves.

 

[CentralIllinoisan]

Is the name Patrick Bateman on your business card?

Good coloring.

That's 'bone'

 

[Bubbler]

Freedom Overspill = awesome.
Higher Love? **** yeah.

These two things made me laugh very loudly.

 

[dooley_womack1]

More or less than, "Prancing? **** yes!"

 

[Trey Beamon]

My dad loves this album. My dad has ****ty taste.

 

[Double J]

I liked the remix of "Valerie" off his next album better.

When he and a DJ named Eric Prydz re-recorded it as "Call On Me" about five or six years ago, and I saw the video, I just about ****. It was like "hominahominahomina."

 

[forever_town]

Who else thought something completely different when clicking on this thread title?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Who else thought something completely different when clicking on this thread title?

Raises hand.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Sometimes we just mock what deserves mocking.

 

[imjustagirl]

My dad loves this album. My dad has ****ty taste.

This could work out well.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I guess I have ****ty taste, too.

 

[JayFarrar]

Aww man, I thought the detective was going to reveal he was Anna Paquin.
Durn.

 

[Twoback]

Back in the High Life was a good album.
Not as good as Low Spark, not as good as Gimme Some Lovin, but it's better than anything Bruce did 20 years after Darkness On The Edge Of Town.

 

[MonsterLobster]

I think Steve Winwood's best of album, whatever it's called, and Phil Collins' "What Hits?" are my two guilty pleasures.

I'm in my mid-20s, so I definitely feel guilty about it.

 

[Huggy]

Big Winwood fan here. Love Back In The High Life, some great stuff on there. "Higher Love" still sounds terrific. For me, it was great hearing Winwood singing with a band again after Arc Of A Diver (a tremendous album) and Talking Back To The Night which were one-man efforts.

Winwood's live album with Clapton kicks some major ass too.

 

[Petrie]

I liked the remix of "Valerie" off his next album better.

When he and a DJ named Eric Prydz re-recorded it as "Call On Me" about five or six years ago, and I saw the video, I just about ****. It was like "hominahominahomina."

This. "Call On Me" is awesome. [/24yearoldwholikeswomeninspandex]