Fantastic is the misguided 1983 debut release from the U.K. duo
Wham. With
Fantastic,
George Michael and partner
Andrew Ridgeley introduced themselves as leather jacket-clad, street-smart "rebels." This approach proved wildly popular in the U.K., where
Fantastic was a Top Ten hit, but the album went largely unnoticed in the States. While
Fantastic showcases the ability of the young (20 at the time of the album's release)
George Michael to craft engaging, hook-filled melodies, much of the material on
Fantastic suffers from the duo's pretentious, tough-guy posturing. The empty
funk of the U.K. hits
"Bad Boys," "Young Guns (Go for It)," and the embarrassing
"Wham Rap" barely registers, and
Michael's smart-aleck, self-conscious lyrics are often unintentionally hilarious. Although
Michael eventually became well-known as a reasonably successful emulator of
R&B trends, neither these tunes nor
Fantastic's stupefying remake of
the Miracles'
"Love Machine" give any indication of his abilities. At best,
Fantastic can be viewed as a testament to
George Michael's maturity.
"Nothing Looks the Same in the Light" and
"Club Tropicana," two of
Fantastic's best tunes, lean toward the lush,
adult pop of
Michael's later solo work. Fortunately,
Michael and
Ridgeley would later ditch the superficial, leather-jacketed approach for the more sophisticated
pop of later
Wham releases like
"Everything She Wants" and
"Freedom" (both from 1984's
Make It Big) and
"The Edge of Heaven" (from 1986's
Music From the Edge of Heaven), finding major U.S. success in the process.
Fantastic isn't a good album, but it's oddly entertaining. It's certainly interesting hearing the difference between the frothy
Fantastic and
Michael's later, "serious" solo work like
Listen Without Prejudice and
Older. And
Fantastic is also good for a few chuckles. Unfortunately, that probably wasn't
George Michael's intention. But even he might get a good laugh out of it. ~ William Cooper
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