Level 42 – Guaranteed

Owning an original I decided to pass on this. The full album and b-sides are here but the live tracks from the singles should have been left off the repress. Makes no sense to have The Sun Goes Down live on this.
I have the CD singles from this album too.
Remixes and live performances are not essential and spoil a nice reissue.

I've been listening to this album regularly since its initial release and find this to be a sonic improvement over the CD. Pressing is very clean & quiet. Nice to have the bonus tracks too. Well done, MOV.

Excellent album and pressing but the last three live tracks do not sound that great, other remixes from the 2CD deluxe would have been better.

After the extremely disappointing Staring At The Sun (and the very sad death of Alan Murphy), Guaranteed was somewhat of an improvement. It has flaws however, some tracks are worthless (The Ape for eg). It also is noticeable how Mark King is trying to sound American (check out the rounding of his 'R's at every opportunity, presumably to still try and capture that elusive US audience that they had been trying to impress for a few years by 1991). Having said that, there are some excellent tracks on here, Overtime is great and should have been a hit, but it's the final 4 tracks (on the vinyl version) that are really very very good. My Father's Shoes is unlike any other L42 track (before or since) and really works, almost country and western is style, both lyrically and musically, with a wonderful jangly guitar accompaniment (Dominic Miller I think). Allan Holdsworth jumped at the chance to be involved with this project, much to Mark's surprise and he has his moments on this lp. A Kinder Eye is one of them, though he goes through the motions a bit with the outro. However, on She Can't Help Herself (my favourite track) he has two wonderful moments with two emotionally charged solos which are just beautiful. I can't emphasise how much I love this track, it's pure class with a gorgeous gear change for the closing section (that I wished would have gone on longer). She Can't Help Herself was regularly included when L42 did the Guaranteed tour.
The closing track is superb, and more than makes up for the dreadful Tracie from the previous album! Gary Husband's tune is superb (even though it contains the line "I'm not going to punch you in the eye just 'cause you told a crazy lie", yuk!), but the tune is excellent and should have been a single. It's still played at their live concerts.
Yes, half of this album is very good indeed. It shouldn't have been remixed by Tom Lord Alge though, as Gary Husband has alluded to, and I think if it hadn't then it would have sounded even better and more "natural" (cue a retro re-mix or mix-down?)

Level 42 are the English pop rock and jazz-funk band which had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the ‘80s and ‘90s. The 'Guaranteed' album was recorded & produced by Level 42 & jazz-funk legend Wally Badarou. The sound is mainstream jazz-funk, with some excellently unexpected moments. Head for ‘The Sun Goes Down [Living It Up] (Live)’ on the bonus disc here for some superb live jazz-funk with repetitive chorus and infectious groove reminiscent of Indeep’s ‘Last Night a DJ Saved My Life’; this is Level 42 and Jazz-funk legend Wally Badarou at their respective collaborative best.