Wham!
If these two 21-year-old Englishmen, George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, could be transported through time, space and a race-change operation, they'd be prime candidates for a contract with the early Motown folks. Their slick, mildly funk-pop sound often raises echoes of the early Jacksons, the Supremes and Smokey Robinson. This can be entertaining, as in their No. 1 single, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, which is peppy and pleasing, if not profound ("Don't leave me hanging on like a yo-yo"). Wham!'s style, though, can get a little tiresome in large doses. By the time Credit Card Baby turned up on this album—"You can have my credit card, baby/ But keep your red hot fingers off my heart, lady"—that level has been reached. Michael and Ridgeley are huge, glamour-boy stars in England, but if they reach that status here, it will be because of the way they look, not the way they sound. (Columbia)
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