Select by Kim Wilde

Select, Kim Wilde's second album, came out on RAK in May 1982 and marked a sharp turn: where her debut ran on rock guitars, this one ran on synthesizers. "Cambodia", the first single, had already signalled the change back in November 1981. Marty and Ricky Wilde again wrote the songs and Ricky produced, and one of them, "Can You Come Over", was recorded at the Wildes' home.

Under the cool electronic gloss, the songs go to some dark places: "View from a Bridge" and "Wendy Sadd" seem to circle around suicide, "Chaos at the Airport" plays out a nightmare about flying, and "Ego" is about as far from a love song as it gets. Gered Mankowitz shot the cover. North America never got it, but it went to number one across a string of European countries and reached number 8 in Australia, though it didn't quite match the debut's success.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.