Kim Wilde – ‘Here Come the Aliens’ reviewed

❉ Kim Wilde’s voice has stood the test of time on this, her first album of original songs since 1992.

It has been a good few years since Kim Wilde has released any music, let alone any original material. In between pursuing her passion for landscape gardening, DJing and being a TV presenter, she’s been far too otherwise occupied.

Since 2001, Kim has toured the UK just three times and in 2003 toured Australia, all as part of the Here and Now eighties revival tour with fellow eighties acts such as Belinda Carlisle, The Human League, Howard Jones and Paul Young.

In 2003 her song Anyplace, Anywhere, Anytime, a duet with German songstress Nena (yes, her of 99 Red Balloons fame) was a huge hit on the Continent, scoring top ten placings in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland.

However, this all changed recently with her latest offering, Here Come the Aliens – Kim’s first album of original songs since 1992, which also features her brother Ricky who brings his guitars and writing skills to the album.  It’s a truly family affair as Kim’s niece also designed and illustrated the album cover art.  It has a retro sci-fi feel which perfectly represents the space-age element of the songs contained therein.

Here Come the Aliens is a return to the tried and tested Wilde formula of melding pure pop with shades of rock and AOR to a somewhat formulaic outcome.  There’s something familiar about this album although all the songs are completely new material.  Perhaps this is in some part due to the fact that the album is recorded at RAK Studios in London which is the same studio where she started her career, with the same producer from back in 1981, and where she recorded such hits as Cambodia, Chequered Love and the anthemic Kids in America. 

Here Come the Aliens was inspired by an encounter Wilde experienced in 2009 with a UFO.  She was sat in her garden with her husband and a friend at night and the inexplicably bright lights she spotted in the night sky moved at lightning speed backwards and forwards.  Curious and unafraid by her encounter, it played on her mind for some time thereafter, thinking about it every day and trying to make sense of the experience.  Eventually, and having given it a lot of thought, it gave Kim the inspiration to write an entire album about her encounter.

The opening track talks about the lunar landings of 1969 and she sings from the paranoia-fuelled viewpoint of “I know they’re watching me! I know they’re watching me!”

Kandy Krush is a feature track and follows the infamous Wilde blueprint.  It might’ve been a big hit back in the ’80s with its frantic guitars, courtesy of Ricky. It’s classic MOR.  Stereo Shot is a feistier, sexier affair, and reminds the listener of Kylie about a decade ago.

The space theme is continued in the beautiful Solstice which opens a capella and develops into a truly wonderful song, and is my favourite on the album.

The album picks up its pace and attitude towards the end of the album in Cyber Nation War and A Different Story.  The pace is then quietened down by the final track on the album, Rosett, a duet featuring Stockholm-based, Swedish musician Freda Sundemo who is better known for her electro-pop music.

The album is sure to please her fans for the much-anticipated new material. Kim Wilde’s voice has stood the test of time and is testament to the fact that we sadly lost her for a while to the lure of ornamental ponds and potted ferns.  Welcome back Kim!


❉ ‘Here Come the Aliens’ was released on Wildeflower Records  on 16th March.

❉ Ange Chan is a poet and novelist.  Her fourth poetry collection “Fame; What’s Your Name?” and her second novel “Baby, Can You Hear Me?” were both published in paperback and Kindle in 2016. 

❉ Ange’s latest poetry collection “Songs of Sorrow and Heartbreak” was published in October 2017 and her  third novel “Champagne Flutes and Pixie Boots” is a work in progress.

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