The 1980s musical equivalent of a sunny summer day, The Outfield recorded a bunch of bright power pop gems, but somehow never became big stars. While their first LP broke the top 10, they quickly fell out of favor, something that baffled us at the time (and ever since). We suppose that there is no small amount of luck involved in success, and the group was not the flashiest, but they truly deserved a better fate.
Long time readers may recall that we featured the group's "Say It Isn't So" on ERV back in 2014. That song was one of four singles off the Play Deep LP that did receive some airplay during the band's all-too-brief period of major success (primarily 1986).
For the blog we had several good options, and finally decided on 1989's "My Paradise." This song was the second single off the Voices of Babylon album (after the title track). We don't recall seeing the video back in the day, and the single stalled at #72 on the charts. To our ear though, this is a power pop gem.
The Outfield continued recording through the early 1990s, but were absent from the industry from most of the rest of that decade. They became more visible in the 2000s, but officially broke up when guitarist (and primary song writer) John Spinks died in 2014. Sadly, lead singer/bassist Tony Lewis has also died (in 2020).
