94 Lionel Richie - S/T - Streaming on Spotify
Don’t get me wrong, Lionel is a superb artist. As my older brother drifted away from his prog and rock taste towards late 70’s disco, the Commodores were amongst the standouts - Easy, Brick House, Three Times A Lady and Still are absolute classics - up there with the very best of the output from Motown. The silky vocals Lionel brought to their best ballads were SO distinctive and memorable - to this day I’ll be transported by “Still” to a wonderful mellow headspace. As my taste began to drift away from my brother’s, the Commodores were definitely still common ground.
So after Lionel’s duet with Diana Ross on Endless Love - a mini classic itself, people were optimistic about his first solo album.... and “people” were generally pretty enthusiastic about this album.
I’m sure they had every right to be... it’s a smooth slice of Motown soul / disco...the glitterati of Motown session musican royalty make appearances, Nathan East and Joe Chemay, Greg Phillingaines, John Robinson... and literally dozens of others. Michael Boddicker and Thomas Dolby inject some nice synths and even Richard Marks adds his slick backing vocals to many tracks. They put in superb performances - there is slick uptempo disco, and smooth ballads. It’s easy on the ear but despite it’s ubiquity at the time it’s all just SO forgettable. Listening now to remind myself, I remembered every song, but had pretty much not thought of any one of them since 1982.
There are highlights - Jo Walsh’s guitar solo on Wandering Stranger is Superb... and the first single “Truly” is easily the best thing Lionel had been involved with since the Midnight Magic Commodores album back in the 70s - and “You Are” bounces along engagingly (and was a highlight at his “legends” slot at Glastonbury) but I bet even these highlights will fall right out of my head.
Just as “You Are” has woken us up 3/4 though the album.... we are into a stodgy dirge with “You mean more to me”....and the epilogue of “just put some love in your heart”,lush as the orchestrations are, just feels lazy.
Lionel had much better to come, as well as some excellent head clay work story videos ;-)... but I don’t think it’s too harsh to say this sounds to my ears like him finding his way as a solo songwriter....very safe, perfectly likable but ultimately meh....
Interestingly, my brother never engaged with solo Lionel either.... perhaps we still shared musical common ground ..... Still ;-)
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