In the wake of
"Send Me an Angel '89"'s success,
David Sterry decided to continue
Real Life without co-founder
Richard Zatorski -- and it took him a while to get his footing. While the late-'90s incarnation of
Real Life added some goth to its mettle and made for some frightening new wave hybrid music,
Lifetime seems too willing to coast on the formula
Sterry had perfected.
"God Tonight" is the requisite single with the requisite
Real Life synth hook anchoring a perfect piece of dance-pop. But it feels less like
Sterry's heart is in it and more the result of
Real Life suddenly becoming a phenomenon again on the basis of the
"Angel" re-release.
"Kiss the Ground," "Push of Love," and
"Let's Start a Fire" are all perfectly solid synth pop songs -- but, alas, the era of synth pop was over by 1990 and
Sterry had yet to discover the type of music that would ultimately make
Real Life great again. While it was great to have a new
Real Life album (and it was still better than much of the pop music out at the time), it feels too much like a commercial product rather than a labor of passion like
Heartland or
Flame.
"Send Me an Angel" ended up being
David Sterry's albatross -- his best-known work, but one from which he could never escape. It would be nearly a decade before
Sterry recovered his footing and made
Real Life truly relevant -- and truly scary -- again. ~ Tomas Mureika
![The Best of INXS [Rhino]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0081227825126_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "The Best of INXS [Rhino]")
![Reggatta De Blanc [Enhanced]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0606949365325_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Reggatta De Blanc [Enhanced]")
