June Pointer - Baby Sister

Now here's an album that had always intrigued me until I recently first got to hear it. It was issued in 1983 between the Pointer Sisters' So Excited album and their mega blockbuster Break Out. Another Richard Perry production, I was wondering if it was in the fabulous synth overload style of the latter or whether it was in the more traditional pop style of the former. It's probably more reminiscent of So Excited. The sisters' own cowrite New Love, True Love recalls something of the energy of previous numbers they'd penned such as I'm So Excited and We're Gonna Make It. There's a whole lot of the Prince sound going on on I Will Understand following on from Sisters' carbon copy cover of I Feel For You from So Excited. There's also an interesting parallel to draw with sister Bonnie's late-70s solo albums in the Motown influence. Norman Whitfield cowrote and coproduced the opening track Ready For Some Action, where you can hear a Papa Was A Rollin' Stone thing going on, and there are also covers of I'm Ready For Love (Holland-Dozier-Holland/Martha and the Vandellas) and Don't Mess With Bill (Smokey Robinson/The Marvellettes; presumably a jokey reference to June's oft-thanked husband William Whitmore).

1. I'm Ready For Love
2. I Will Understand
3. To You
4. New Love, True Love
5. I'm Ready For Love
6. You Can Do It
7. Always
8. My Blues Have Gone Away
9. Don't Mess With Bill

READY?

Barry White - I Love To Sing The Songs I Sing

One of my favourite tracks from Barry White's late-70s work is the title track to his 1979 album I Love To Sing The Songs I Sing. It's a poppy number with a simple lyric ("I love to sing the songs I sing/And I sing the songs I love to sing!") and cooing back-ups presumably courtesy of the ladies of Love Unlimited. I read somewhere that much like Donna Summer's Back In Love Again from her I Remember Yesterday set, this is Barry's homage to the 60s sound of Motown. My only criticism of the track was that at just short of three minutes, it's over way too soon! So just imagine my disco delight when I found that it had been issued on a promo 12" in an extended mix!

I Love To Sing The Songs I Sing (6:12)

Chaka Khan - Naughty

And here's Chaka's follow-up effort from 1980. Opener 'Clouds' sees Chaka pulling off another Ashford and Simpson disco stormer. Maybe it falls slightly short of the peaks scaled by 'I'm Every Woman', but hey...that's a hard act to follow. I first heard it as the EPIC Clivilles & Cole remix on 'Life Is A Dance'...what a track. Elsewhere Chaka does her own takes on 'Move Me No Mountain' as previously recorded by Love Unlimited and the Gregg Diamond Bionic Boogie groover (with one Luther Vandross on vocal duties) 'Hot Butterfly', here retitled 'Papillon'.

1. Clouds
2. Get Ready, Get Set
3. Move Me No Mountain
4. Nothing's Gonna Take You Away
5. So Naughty
6. Too Much Love
7. All Night's All Right
8. What You Did
9. Papillon (aka Hot Butterfly)
10. Our Love's In Danger

It's gonna RAIN

Chaka Khan - Chaka

We've been well overdue a bit of Chaka Khan, as promised ages ago. Here's Chaka's debut solo album from 1978 after five years of working with funk group Rufus. Everyone knows the Ashford and Simpson-penned disco stormer 'I'm Every Woman' and rightly so...it just doesn't get much better. Shame it's better known as Whitney Houston's vastly inferior cover version. The other dance hit here is 'Life Is A Dance' which pales in comparison somewhat but was given a new lease of life on the 1989 remix compilation that borrowed its title. 'Roll Me Through The Rushes' is a lovely ballad and I've got a soft spot for the impenetrable 'The Message In The Middle Of The Bottom'!

1. I'm Every Woman
2. Love Has Fallen On Me
3. Roll Me Through The Rushes
4. Sleep On It
5. Life Is A Dance
6. We Got The Love
7. Some Love
8. A Woman In A Man's World
9. The Message In The Middle Of The Bottom
10. I Was Made To Love Him

It's all in ME

Love Unlimited Orchestra - My Sweet Summer Suite

Oh let's have another one! What a peculiar cover. This is someone else's (thanks whoever!) rip that I've cleaned up. Not sure that the intro to the first track is quite right and I had to shave a bit off the end of 'Blues Concerto' because of a couple of skips. Hey ho. But you do get the long versions of 'My Sweet Summer Suite' and 'Strange Games And Things' as bonus tracks. The latter was only issued as a promo 12" originally and was something of a holy grail for afficionados of Barry's groove.

1. My Sweet Summer Suite (4:48)
2. Strange Games And Things (4:02)
3. Blues Concerto (3:17)
4. You I Adore (4:48)
5. Brazilian Love Song (5:56)
6. Are You Sure (3:54)
7. You're Givin' Me Something (3:20)
8. I'm Falling In Love With You (4:06)
bonus tracks:
9. My Sweet Summer Suite (12" version) (7:13)
10. Strange Games And Things (long version) (8:29)

Strange games an TINGS

Love Unlimited Orchestra - My Musical Bouquet

It's that time again! You know a while ago, when I was musing on how Barry White managed to produce so much great music during the mid/late 70s? Well, I didn't realise then quite how many Love Unlimited Orchestra albums there were. I really don't know HOW he found the time. Anyway, here's the Orchestra's 1978 effort 'My Musical Bouquet'. It's another absolute classic, I'd say on a par with 'Rhapsody In White'. Unlike the previous 'My Sweet Summer Suite' set, with its hit title track, this album didn't fare too well, coming out while Barry (and side projects) were switching labels. That's a real shame as it really is a great album. Each track contains a short ode from Barry on the usual subject of love although in this case related to his 'Musical Bouquet' [example: The violins are my roses/Red as your negligee/And through them flows my passion/In every kind of way (!)], making the album a kind of concept album. Unlike most of the Love Unlimited Orchestra albums, the vocals of Love Unlimited are much in evidence here, giving it quite a different sound to most of the previous albums, as does the chilled-out tempo of most of the tracks.

1. Don't You Know How Much I Love You (5:21)
2. Stay Please And Make Love To Me (6:50)
3. Hey Look At Me, I'm In Love (7:08)
4. Love You, Oh It's True I Do (3:53)
5. Whisper Softly (7:29)
6. Enter Love's Interlude (2:16)
7. Can't You See (6:57)

Visit Barry the FLORIST!

Grace Jones - Musclemix

Here's something a little different I've dug out of the record pile. Grace Jones' three Compass Point albums Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Living My Life were all very critically well received (I remember at least two of them being given the accolade of 'Record Of The Year' in the NME, back when that meant something!), but in the UK at least it wasn't until the release of the Trevor Horn-produced 'Slave To The Rhythm' and subsequent best of 'Island Life' that Grace hit her commercial peak. Several tracks from the latter were issued as singles in 1986, with a double A-sided 'Pull Up To The Bumper/La Vie En Rose' making #12 on the UK charts, Graces' biggest hit apart from the aforementioned 'Slave...' single. These reissued singles contained some interesting new mixes of the tracks. Here's some from the remix 12" single of 'Pull Up To The Bumper'. The Musclemix (subtitled 'A Megamix Cut-Up') is the creation of Les 'Mixdoctor' Adams of DMC and features 'Pull Up To The Bumper', 'Slave To The Rhythm', 'Warm Leatherette', 'Private Life', 'Walking In The Rain', 'Use Me' and 'Love Is The Drug'. The remix of 'Pull Up To The Bumper' is by Paul 'Groucho' Smykle.

1. Grace Jones Musclemix (9:00)
2. Pull Up To The Bumper (Remix) (6:26)

Pull up TO IT