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my absolute Favorite H&O album ever and my favorite overall from 1988...This is a review from Rolling Stone magazine back when the cd was first released!:)

So Daryl Hall and John Oates went out and got themselves a brand-new band and a brand-new record label. And guess what? They sound like the same old Daryl Hall and John Oates.

And that's not necessarily a bad thing. This is their first album in almost four years, and to hear it is to remember the desperately needed shot of soul they provided in the early Eighties, when black acts had a hard time getting on the radio. But by the time of Big Bam Boom, in 1984, their hits had become so ubiquitous that their sound had been glossed over to the point of embalmment.

Now they reunite with a refreshed attitude, if not a new context. Hall's voice regains the vigor that deserted him on later hits like "Out of Touch" and "Method of Modern Love." On Ooh Yeah!, Hall charges up "I'm in Pieces" – yet another doo-wop salute – and plunges into "Rockability" with the confidence of a man whose faith has been reaffirmed. And though there's a preponderance of slow love songs, they never sag: by stripping away a layer or two of the old polish, Hall finds a warmth that could melt the coldest drum machine.

Equally essential are Oates's confectionery harmonies. He tends to be overlooked, as Hall gets most of the lead vocals and writes most of the songs, but Oates is no Andrew Ridgeley. In fact most of Hall and Oates's best moments revolve around Oates's backup, not Hall's lead. When Oates does get a lead, he slides into it with a low, agitated breathiness, the change-up to Hall's high heater.

Oates even cops a sly, Lou Reed-like delivery on "Keep On Pushing Love," which is ironic, since Reed turns up in the lyrics to "Downtown Life," the victim of a cheap shot from Hall: "Velvet Lou was a neighbor of mine/Now he walks a dog in Jersey, Brother." This is especially unfortunate, because "Downtown Life" has got the kind of hooks that instantly implant themselves in your consciousness and then last through a season or two of heavy rotation. And in the end it's hard not to feel a little sorry for Hall anyway: he's trying to hold on to the culture and environment that he loves, and yet you still get the feeling it's all slipping away from him.

Hall turns off the nastiness on the rest of the album, and both he and Oates show that they have grown up a little. "Everything Your Heart Desires" is more of a plea than an indictment – no "Maneater" misogyny here. And in "Keep On Pushing Love," Oates writes about how a "homeless man on a frozen stoop ... gets the walk-on-by from the business suit." So at least they are up-to-date, if not ahead of the times.

Black music by black artists has come back in a big way since Hall and Oates have been gone, but that doesn't mean there's not room for them anymore. After all, the Rascals and the Righteous Brothers peacefully coexisted with Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett; there's no reason Hall and Oates can't continue to thrive during the heyday of Prince and Terence Trent D'Arby. (RS 529)

ROB HOERBURGER




(Posted: Jun 30, 1988)


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Track List



* Downtown Life
* Everything Your Heart Desires
* I'm In Pieces
* Missed Opportunity
* Talking All Night
* Rockability
* Rocket To God
* Soul Love
* ReaLove
* Keep On Pushin' Love