1990 Maria McKee: Show Me Heaven

As far as music goes, I've always liked 'well kept secrets'. By that I mean an artist or band whose work I enjoy enormously but who has never found mainstream success. Like Maria McKee. In 1990 I'd long been a fan of her cowpunk band Lone Justice and the little diva's 1989 debut solo album still appears in any 'all time top ten' lists I compile. But whilst others are keen to bring their latest discoveries to the attention of a wider audience, I prefer to keep mine to myself, snobbish in my exclusivity (and probably too scared to cast my pearls before swine in case they don't grunt in approval). Sometimes though I have no say in the matter, a fluke hit or wider exposure can come from nowhere for the most spurious of reasons and so it was with a heavy heart I greeted the news that Maria would be singing the theme song to the new Tom Cruise movie about a racing car driver called Cole Trickle. I'd have probably felt less dismayed if she'd revealed she spent her weekends sealclubbing.

That's not to say I thought 'Show Me Heaven' was a nailed on hit, because I didn't. In fact I still can't see it - the song goes for a slow burn smoulder, but the wood here is too wet to catch a spark no matter how hard Maria's voice tries to rub two sticks together. Because although Maria may have insisted on re-writing the original lyrics, 'Show Me Heaven' remains a dirge that builds to a brick wall, a "Show me heaven, please" cry of inertia and dependency that's hard to sympathise with. Maria sounds suitably wrought throughout, but with a power ballad with no pay off to deliver her angst has nowhere to go and she's left floundering like a fish in the sun. It's only at the 2:13 "and it feeeeeels divine" mark does the real Maria break clear of the doldrums to run a shiver down the spine, but it's not enough to pick this up off the floor.