Whereas rock video was originally a means of enhancing the music, the Fixx have turned the equation around. With vaguely foreboding bad-dream imagery drifting through every song, Reach the Beach seems more a series of treatments for MTV than anything else.

Like many British synth bands, the Fixx have managed to parlay a lightweight microchip-pop sensibility into a chart-topping formula,...

The Fixx would be easy to swallow if it only played instrumentals. Poised, polished and ultimately passionless, the sugary funk-rock of Walkabout would slide right down the gullet sans lyrics. But no way: The Fixx has the burning urge to Communicate. "Use your soul read between the lines," implores singer and lyricist Cy Curnin. Maybe mine needs cleansing; I couldn't get past the lines...