The Fixx

The Fixx scored five Top 40 hits between 1983 and 1986 while recording for MCA Records (there was a sixth Top 40 hit, "How Much Is Enough," on Impact Records in 1991). Those five hits are all presented here in the form of their promotional videos, originally aired on MTV and other outlets, starting with their biggest song, the Top Five "One Thing Leads to Another," which finds blond, blow-dried, thin, and angular-faced lead singer Cy Curnin walking through what looks like a drained sewer, its circular shape dominating the film's imagery. "Saved By Zero" is a concept video in which Curnin plays a tortured artist in a garret, with such typical music-video images as overturned tables and bottles spilling in slow motion. (In these videos, other bandmembers Jamie West-Oram, Rupert Greenall, and Adam Woods have moments here and there, but the focus is on Curnin. Apparently, the group was in between bass players when the videos were shot.) The other three videos show the band in performance. "The Sign of Fire" is actually a live version in front of an audience. In "Are We Ourselves?," they are out in a field performing before a giant satellite dish. "Secret Separation" finds them in some sort of airplane hanger under the eye of a severe looking man with a shaved head, playing among industrial detritus. The videos have no particular relevance to the music; they just seem intended to be eye-catching in the way that fashion advertisements are. Customers may be surprised that the DVD runs less than 18 minutes, but it is a complement to the discount-priced 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection CD, which is not quite so short but is intended to present only the highlights of the group's career. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide