Size Isn't Everything | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by Bee Gees | ||||
Released | 13 September 1993 (UK) 2 November 1993 (US) |
|||
Recorded | 1992–1993 Middle Ear, Miami Beach |
|||
Genre | Pop rock, dance-pop, acoustic, new jack swing | |||
Length |
50:43 (US) 55:39 (European) |
|||
Label | Polydor | |||
Producer | Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, Maurice Gibb, Femi Jiya | |||
Bee Gees studio albums chronology | ||||
|
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | link |
Size Isn't Everything is the twentieth studio album by the Bee Gees, released in the UK on 13 September 1993, and the US on 2 November of the same year. The brothers abandoned the contemporary dance feel of the previous album High Civilization and went for what they would describe as "A return to our sound before Saturday Night Fever".
The album marked the Bee Gees's return to Polydor Records after their three-album contract with Warner Bros. Records. The album was recorded following a time of considerable strain for the Gibb brothers. Maurice had only recently managed to overcome his long-term struggle with alcoholism and Barry Gibb's wife and prematurely newborn daughter both suffered ill health. Barry himself was also scheduled to have back surgery. Then on 6 March 1992, the brothers' father, Hugh Gibb, died, the day after the birthday of their late brother Andy, who had died in 1988. The album was dedicated to Hugh. Work on the album began in 1992.
The first track "Paying the Price of Love" has numerous "alternate mixes" available in different releases. "Kiss of Life" is an energetic rock/dance hybrid with an impressively complex vocal line involving distinctive Robin and Barry's solo vocals as well as the group's vocals. "Omega Man" and "Above and Beyond" feature lead vocals by Maurice Gibb. On "Haunted House", Barry commented in an interview with Q magazine, "I guess you could say the song's about divorce". According to Robin, "Heart Like Mine" was inspired by Enya's moody songs, and he gets some of the slow dreamy feel of her music. "Blue Island" was dedicated to the children of the former Yugoslavia and according to Barry that the song was the nicest track they had ever written.
"For Whom the Bell Tolls" became the biggest hit on Size Isn't Everything. The last track, "Decadance" was a new remix of the classic No. 1 hit "You Should Be Dancing", which was included only in the European version of the album. The unison scream of the line ("My baby moves at midnight") by Barry at 2:20 was first sung to the public back in 1989, towards the end of the One for All Tour in Melbourne.