“The Lost Boys: Hard-To-Find ’80s Albums” gives you exactly what the title implies: a rare or out-of-print album from the ’80s in its entirety. Some will be from CD, but most will have been lovingly transferred from pristine vinyl culled directly from the Analog Kid’s vast collection. Whatever album I choose, it will be one that you can’t easily find a physical copy for sale on Amazon or in your local record store (if you even have one anymore). Death…by stereo!
Last night, I received a lovely email from one of my loyal readers. William expressed his concern over my well-being due to the absence of blog posts over the last few weeks, and wanted to make sure that I was OK. Yes, William, I am fine! My family went through some personal stuff recently, and that led to a minor short-circuiting of the blog. I just haven’t been in the mood to write, although I have continued to rip more vinyl during this down time.
Well, I am happy to report that William’s email has snapped me out of my writing funk. It always warms my heart to hear from you guys, and now I’m back and ready to share my recent vinyl rips with you! Today, The Analog Kid blog is happy to feature Heartland, the 1983 debut album from Melbourne’s Real Life. All of you certainly know the synth-pop classic “Send Me An Angel,” but the entire album is well worth a listen. “Catch Me I’m Falling” was another Top 40 hit in the U.S., and “Openhearted” was also a minor hit down under.
Can I share a weird thought I’ve always had about “Send Me An Angel?” Even though it’s mostly a keyboard-driven song (great guitar solo, though!), the song has always made me think about The Scorpions. Vocalist David Sterry sounds a LOT like Scorpions singer Klaus Meine to my ears (especially on “Send Me An Angel”), and I always laugh when I think about Klaus belting out a new-wave classic. And guess what? In 1990, The Scorpions released an album entitled Crazy World— and the last track was called “Send Me An Angel!” Sadly for me, it was a Scorpions original and not a Real Life cover. Happily for the Scorpions, it was a world-wide smash. Maybe someday, the Scorps will do a medley…
Heartland has technically been issued on CD a few times over the years, but I can tell you this: I’ve never seen a copy, and the only one for sale on Amazon as of this writing appears to be a bootleg (and $129 to boot!). The copy I have shared below is a 320 kbps rip from my original vinyl, and The Analog Kid hopes you enjoy this great rip of a new wave classic!
![Heartland [320 kbps]](https://analogkidblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/heartland-320-kbps.png)
Real Life: Heartland
Curb/MCA Records
320 kbps vinyl rip courtesy of The Analog Kid
1. “Send Me An Angel” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
2. “Catch Me I’m Falling” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
3. “Under The Hammer” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
4. “Heartland” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
5. “Breaking Point” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
6. “Broken Again” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
7. “Always” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
8. “Openhearted” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
9. “Exploding Bullets” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
10. “Burning Blue” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
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Bonus Tracks!
The first rule of The Analog Kid blog is that if you write about a song on the Analog Kid blog, you share the song on the Analog Kid blog.
![Send Me An Angel [U.S. 12_] [320 kbps]](https://analogkidblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/send-me-an-angel-u-s-12_-320-kbps.jpg)
Real Life: “Send Me An Angel” [Extended Mix] (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
Send Me An Angel [Extended Mix]
Real Life: “Like A Gun” (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
From the U.S. 12″ single Send Me An Angel
Curb Records, 1983
![Catch Me I'm Falling [U.K. 12_] [320 kbps]](https://analogkidblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/catch-me-im-falling-u-k-12_-320-kbps.jpg)
Real Life: “Catch Me I’m Falling” [Extended Version] (David Sterry/Richard Zatorski)
From the U.S. 12″ single Catch Me I’m Falling
Curb Records, 1983
Catch Me I’m Falling [Extended Version]
Scorpions: “Send Me An Angel” (Klaus Meine/Rudolf Schenker)
From the album Crazy World
Mercury Records, 1990
The Analog Kid 
hope you are well along with your family, that is more important than this, but we are happy as well to have you back
This post reminds me of another favorite band of mine from this era, who continued making (good) music long after I thought they had disappeared. That would be The Fixx. I think you posted something from their first album, but they have some great material from later albums, including their latest, “Beautiful Friction.” Check out the song “Just Before Dawn” for a good start…do I hear a hint of Bowie?
Wow, he really does sound like the Scorpions’s singer. That’s wild. Life has kept me from visiting your site in a while myself, but when I do it always makes my day. So glad you are still ripping and writing.
Yes, i thought the same thing. When i first heard The singer of Real Life he sounded so much like Klaus Meine, that it was simply weird. And it completed the confusion for me , when i found out, that the Scorpions also had a song called “send me an angel”, which sounds a lot different, but you are right about the similarities of the Voices. This song is an all time classic. I would be very happy, if a song enters the charts half as good as this.
David Sterry does sound amazingly like Klaus Meine, particularly in some of his pronunciation of his words. Though, Sterry is slightly more raspy, on ‘Send me an Angel’ he sounds very much like Klaus. I had to double take after listening to this song recently. If you listen to Sterry sing this song in 10s, his voice has deepened a lot… much more than Klaus’s has. Oddly enough, the Scorpions also wrote their own version of ‘Send me an Angel’ which sounds nothing like Real Life’s version… which is particularly confusing when you search Google for this song looking for Real Life’s version.
One other observation that Sterry’s voice says is that Klaus’s vocal tone would work just as well in other genre’s besides guitar rock. If Klaus wanted to sing against a synth backing track, it would work so long as the song is well written and catchy.