This a respectful cover album by Real Life and if you are into cover songs, then definitely give Real Life’s “Send Me an Angel: 80s Synth Essentials” a chance!
Purchase Real Life – Send Me an Angel: 80s Synth Essentials on Amazon
BAND: Real Life
ALBUM: Send Me an Angel: 80s Synth Essentials
LABEL: Cleopatra
DURATION: 15 Songs (1 Hr., 3 Minutes)
RELEASE YEAR: May 19, 2009
1 Send Me An Angel (2009 Version) 4:12
2 Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) 3:24
3 Cars 3:43
4 Fade To Grey 3:16
5 Everything Counts 3:33
6 Blue Monday 5:03
7 Primary 3:38
8 Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime 4:34
9 Shout 6:22
10 Nowhere Girl 3:59
11 I Melt With You 4:36
12 Tainted Love 3:07
13 The Model 4:00
14 Send Me An Angel (1983 Remix) 3:57
15 Send Me An Angel (12″ Remix) 5:46
Back in 1983, the Australian new wave/synth pop band Real Life had their first enormous hit “Send Me an Angel” and followed up with a second hit “Catch Me I’m Falling” that same year.
The band features David Sterry on lead vocals/guitar, Richard Zatorski (keyboards/violin) (who would later be replaced by Steve Williams and then later George Pappas), Allan Johnson (bass) and Danny Simcic (drums).
Originally formed in 1980 with Zatorski placing an ad in a Melbourne newspaper to look for a guitarist, David Sterry would respond and they began working on material and become known as The Wires.
While the two worked with an old drum machine, they decided to recruit more band members and change their band name to A Private Life would open for successful Australian bands such as INXS, Midnight Oil and numerous others.
But when a band from Sydney had the same name and threatened legal action, the band settled to “Real Life”.
The group’s manager heard the band’s earliest version of “Send Me an Angel”, he formed his own label and in 1983, “Send Me an Angel” became a top 10 hit in Australia. For international distribution, they were signed to Curb Records and would chart in other countries including the US. And would follow up again with their third single “Catch Me I’m Falling”.
And the band released “Send Me an Angel ’89” which would do better than the original. Thus becoming a successful Australian band to not become a one-hit wonder and have multiple hits overseas.
The band continues performing to this day and released a new album titled “Sirens” in 2020.
An album that was released in 2009, their sixth, was titled “Send Me an Angel: 80s Synth Essentials” and it was a cover album by the band who would cover new wave classics by top artist including Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Visage, The Cure, Soft Cell, New Order, Modern English, B-Movie and also Eurythmics, Tears for Fears and Kraftwerk.
The album would also include three versions of their song “Send Me An Angel” re-recorded for the 2009 album, a re-recorded 1983 remix and a re-recorded 12″ mix.
The album kicks off with “Send Me an Angel (Re-Recorded)” and the 2009 version features a difference in percussion, instead of a drum kit, actual drums and synth drums are being utilized, along with some backing vocals, whistling and some noticeable differences but nothing too far off from the original ’89 mix. David Sterry can still the song with efficacy over 25 years later with no problems.
The second track is a cover of the huge Eurythmic’s hit song “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” and was wondering how Sterry would do by singing in place of Annie Lennox’s vocals and sure enough, he did a very good job. If anything, this is a Real Life version, so you do get guitars, and some slight synth shifts and if anything, the band pays respect to the original.
The third track is covering Gary Numan’s “Cars” and the cover song is well-done and Sterry does a good job of singing it Numan-style. But a solid cover!
The fifth track is a cover of Visage’s “Fade to Grey”. And what new wave cover album would be complete without the inclusion of a Visage song. For those not familiar with Visage, the band who is known for helping spark the popularity of the New Romantic fashion/music movement, were also instrumental in promoting the bands at the time at their hugely popular Blitz nightclub in London’s Soho District. But overall, a solid cover of the popular ’80s song!
The sixth track is a cover of Depeche Mode’s huge hit “Everything Counts” and was curious to see how the band would cover it because Sterry’s vocals is a slight higher than David Gahan’s vocals and Martin Gore’s higher background vocals. But for the most part, it’s a Real Life cover and the band paid their respect to their original.
The seventh track is a cover of the popular New Order song “Blue Monday”. Real Life brought their own style to the musical arrangement, while keeping respect to the original.
Now the eight track is a cover of The Cure’s “Primary”, which is a bass guitar and guitar heavy track. And of course, everyone knows the original with Robert Smith’s vocals, but Real Life did a good cover with the synth arrangement and the guitars.
The ninth track is a cover of The Korgi’s 1980’s hit “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime” and it’s a solid cover and well-sung by Sterry.
The tenth track is a cover of Tears for Fears “Shout” and this would be to hard cover, as Roland Orzabal brought his own style with vocals to the song that it’s hard to hear anything else. But for the most part, Real Life did OK and paid respect to the cover, but definitely not the easiest song to cover.
The eleventh track is a cover of B-Movie’s “Nowhere Girl” and this is actually a very good cover track!
The 12th track is a cover of Modern English’s “I Melt With You” and it’s a good cover, with a different approach to singing the song compared to original Robbie Grey style of singing the song. But overall, a good cover.
The 13th track is a cover of the popular Soft Cell hit “Tainted Love” and interesting to hear a Real Life version of the song. Giving it a spunky cover of original.
The final cover is of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” and it’s a solid cover by the band! If anything, you have to nail down the synth and the band did a great job paying respect to the original.
And last, you get two more different versions of “Send Me an Angel” (a re-recorded 1983 remix and a re-recorded 12″ mix) but personally, if they were going to re-record songs, I felt Real Life should have done a re-recording of “Catch Me I’m Falling”, which would have fit perfectly with this album.
But overall, this is a cover album, and what best than to have a new wave band from the ’80s covering awesome new wave and pop hits from the ’80s. And the band puts their style, yet paying respect to the originals and did a solid job of doing just that. Lead vocalist David Sterry doesn’t try to sound like David Gahan, Robert Smith, Bernard Sumner or Annie Lennox, to name a few. But if anything, is a respectful cover album by Real Life and if you are into cover songs, then definitely give Real Life’s “Send Me an Angel: 80s Synth Essentials” a chance!
Purchase Real Life – Send Me an Angel: 80s Synth Essentials on Amazon
