First Hit #1: February 20, 1988
Apparently Seasons Change wasn’t featured in Kickboxer. I know I was surprised, having watched Kickboxer, which was filled with ballads like this. It even has that vaguely Asian but not really synth flavor, and could easily fit over a montage of JCVD and the mustache guy falling out over JCVD’s decision to fight the big bad – I’ve seen Kickboxer, but I both don’t remember the character names and don’t feel they are that important. Sorry, Kickboxer fans.
It stands to reason that a decade that is chockablock with soundtrack hits would eventually spawn a song that sounds like a soundtrack hit, even when it’s not connected to any actual film. Maybe Exposé was hoping to get on that sweet soundtrack money train, and have all sorts of cash rolling into their bank accounts when a cheesy action movie placed it over a montage. It has lyrics about people falling out, perfect for a mid-film moment when the lovers argue and leave each other briefly, before the late film triumph brings them back together. It does have a pretty good foreboding atmosphere, even if the sax doesn’t quite know why it’s there, and overall it just feels like it should belong in the era’s finest trend – action films starring buff foreigners. It’s a soundtrack hit in search of a soundtrack, but at least it was still a hit.
Listen to that synth bass! It defines late 80s pop like gated drums defined four years earlier. Freestyle hits the top of the charts once again. The market for anonymous girl groups in slinky dresses remains undiminished.