TRACKLIST:
01 Paying The Price Of Love
02 Kiss Of Life
03 How To Fall In Love, Pt. 1
04 Omega Man
05 Haunted House
06 Heart Like Mine
07 Anything For You
08 Blue Island
09 Above And Beyond
10 For Whom The Bell Tolls
11 Fallen Angel
12 Decadance
B'SIDES:
My Destiny (From "Paying The Price Of Love" Single)
855-7019 (From "How To Fall In Love" Single)
UNRELEASED TRACKS:
Personal
Silent Scream
Terminal
Terminal
ALBUM RECORDING:
The songwriting and possibly recording had started in 1992.
The album marked the Bee Gees 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.
The album was dedicated to Hugh Gibb, the brothers father who died on 5 March 1992.
Thematically some of the songs continue ideas from the High Civilization song cycle, but there is no overall theme.
CRITICAL RECEPTION:
Reception of the album was mixed around the world, though it is notable that it was one of the most successful Bee Gees albums in Argentina, peaking at No. 1 due to the big success of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" there.
Worldwide sales of the album are estimated to be over 700,000 copies.
According to Barry, when asked on American breakfast shows why the album was called "Size Isn't Everything", he explained that the Bee Gees have never been hyped and that they have always had to prove themselves musically, so the title came from that idea.
TOUR:
The Bee Gees and Polydor had planned a major tour in 1994 to promote the album, but was cancelled because in February 1994 Barry was having trouble with arthritis in his back, right hand, and right knee.
He dated it to the surgery he had in 1992. No link was ever proved but his painful condition could not be denied. Barry would now endure years of ineffective treatments.
REVIEW TRACK BY TRACK:
Paying The Price Of Love
It was the first songs who him write for the album.
It was the only song with a prominent Barry falsetto vocal and a dance beat.
Maybe this was what the public expected of the Bee Gees but the album was much more varied.
The beat is a hip hop groove, before that was commonly heard on top forty radio, showing the Bee Gees’s awareness of current sounds.
Barry sings about the agony of being uncertain about love, not the certainty of the character in High Civilization.
Kiss Of Life
Was an energetic rock/dance hybrid with an impressively complex vocal line involving distinctive Robin and Barry solo vocals as well as group vocals.
Robin sings some characteristically odd lyrics making it hard to say exactly what the song is about, but it has a great feel to it.
The kiss of life is that essential touch that one needs.
How To Fall In Love, Pt. 1
This song was a combination of two songs who him write before started the album.
Was a good ballad sung by Barry rolling into a long repeating ending where the vocal is like the rhythm section to the instrumental parts.
This song continues on the fantasy in High Civilization even more explicitly of an older man and a much younger woman.
The "Part 2" doesn't exist, the "Part 1" was aciddentally credited on album.
Maurice said later that he decided to finish up ‘Omega Man’ after Barry had set it aside.
The lyrics are not well developed.
The song does show off Maurice’s voice to good advantage and without the growling he often affected.
Haunted House
Barry and Robin sing together for most of "Haunted House" and this song talk about divorce
and initially was being called "Lambs To The Slaughter".
and initially was being called "Lambs To The Slaughter".
Heart Like Mine
Robin said that ‘Heart Like Mine’ was inspired by Enya’s moody songs, he gets some of the slow dreamy feel of her music and was your favourite personal song.
Anything For You
Was the lightweight song of the album and Barry say it's just for fun.
Blue Island
Dedicated to the children of the former Yugoslavia’, says the lyric sheet.
A real change of pace, ‘Blue Island’ has Barry and Robin singing as one voice with some harmony by Maurice, accompanied mainly by just the simple sound of Barry and Maurice playing rhythm guitar.
For Maurice, this is a "Unplugged" Bee Gees track.
For Maurice, this is a "Unplugged" Bee Gees track.
Above And Beyond
The second featured vocal by Maurice, "Above and Beyond" is a good upbeat number with Barry adding prominent backing vocal. Maurice’s old optimism was back and was inspired in Tamia and the Motown era.
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Was a beautiful mixture of the classic and modern Bee Gees sound.
Formally it is similar to "The Only Love" but with Robin singing the big chorus that is so much in his style and Barry singing the more twisting verse melody that is so much in his. They sound great.
The interplay of Barry and Robin, and Maurice doing harmony, was very reminiscent of their old records, but the song is more sophisticated and the sound more contemporary. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" sums up what "Size Isn’t Everything" was all about.
Fallen Angel
Is the modern Robin sound, his vocals floating over electronic percussion and synthesizer.
Was inspired in Pet Shop Boys.
Was inspired in Pet Shop Boys.
The lyrics are outstanding, contrasting the parents love and hope with their daughter's desperate search for love somewhere else, sung not to the pathetic tune of strings but to a pounding maddening beat that echoes the confusion in her head.
Decadance
Is just the 1976 recording "You Should Be Dancing" edited and remixed into many new versions.
On some releases for this album this song appears as a hidden track.
B'SIDES:
My Destiny
Has a great rocking guitar riff by Alan Kendall and classic 1970s Bee Gees harmonies on the chorus.
855-7019
Is a laid-back ballad sung alternately by Barry and Robin in top form and with a lazy instrumental ending.
