Move over Robert Palmer - the greatest smooth 80s song

[BlodwynPig]

Heard this sampled on a vaporwave track (minddrive - All you do) and found the original

Alexander O'Neal - Criticize

A song I probably sneered at in the 80s, but the video!, smooth funky squelch bass and sublime backing vocals (Lisa Keith - who also features on classics such as Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation).

Enjoy

[SpiderChrist]

O'Neal's first two albums are great - perfect 80s sophisticated soul.

And he guested on this absolute banger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxqUrXWydig

[DrGreggles]

Criticize has always been a banger.
Also available in 'special' and 'long':
https://youtu.be/7yL5oxcc8aQ

[BlodwynPig]

Telling my teenage self to 'just get into that groove you prog rock twat'

[BlodwynPig]

Criticize has always been a banger.
Also available in 'special' and 'long':
https://youtu.be/7yL5oxcc8aQ

The one I have on my digital version has a "I Love You" female voice sample, which is the same as the 1983 "I Love You" voice in the Yello track. Can find no info about the source of that sample, but it amuses me that O'Neal used a sample from them! Maybe after seeing Ferris Bueller's Day Off and hearing "Oh Yeah"?

[Rizla]

Revisiting the Hits4 compilation recently,this stood out as a track 10-your old me would have fast-forwarded  (stuck as it was between ultrabangers "How Will I Know" and "System Addict" but what a smooth groove. Written by a member of The Time, as was Criticize (different one though).

[BlodwynPig]

Any other period recommendations - I don't like the slow ballad style, but often they counterbalance the funky bangers. Listening to Stayce and Kimko for example - always needs the video too (this is very Janet Jackson with a lovely almost 8-bit bass)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tdpekFGu-Y

[Rizla]

Any other period recommendations - I don't like the slow ballad style, but often they counterbalance the funky bangers.

George Benson Gimme The Night, toothsome as fuck.

[BlodwynPig]

George Benson Gimme The Night, toothsome as fuck.

Cheers. Such a chill video too. Been listening to Wilbert Longmire again recently, and this is a bit more of a bassy version of his funkier stuff. The backing singers bit at 0:51 sounds familiar.

[Rizla]

At the all-too-real risk of this becoming a yachtrock list, Michael McDonald I Keep Forgetting, as sampled in Warren G and Nate Dogg's "Regulate"

[non capisco]

Any other period recommendations

If you dig Criticize I think you'll like Serious by Donna Allen , a skyscraping belter of the genre. If you're not familiar with the title you will have heard the chorus before.

And another obvious one would be Trapped by Colonel Abrams

[BlodwynPig]

If you dig Criticize I think you'll like Serious by Donna Allen , a skyscraping belter of the genre. If you're not familiar with the title you will have heard the chorus before.

And another obvious one would be Trapped by Colonel Abrams

:)

[DrGreggles]

Trapped by Colonel Abrams

Real name: Colonel Abrams

[non capisco]

Well, fuck my hat!

[Rizla]

Real name: Colonel Abrams

I remember my mate's older sister snorting at the line "like a fool caught in a cage". "I think he's mistaken a simile for a metaphor there", she quipped. She was so funny and cool, I loved her.

[BlodwynPig]

I remember my mate's older sister snorting at the line "like a fool caught in a cage". "I think he's mistaken a simile for a metaphor there", she quipped. She was so funny and cool, I loved her.

Coincidentally she's playing drums in the video in the OP.

[jobotic]

Trapped only sounds right if it's echoing down the corridor from the school hall to the cloakroom where we're necking some smuggled in Malibu.

[non capisco]

I remember my mate's older sister snorting at the line "like a fool caught in a cage". "I think he's mistaken a simile for a metaphor there", she quipped. She was so funny and cool, I loved her.

She sounds like a nightmare. "Ahahaha I think you'll find he's mistaken a simile for a metaphor!" And it actually goes "Oh oh, I'm trapped like a fool, I'm in a cage" so tell her to take her quip and stick it up her arse, Rizla, I hate her.

[Better Midlands]

Alexander O'Neal - Criticize

Jam and Lewis were on fire round about this time, the whole Hearsay album is very good.

[BlodwynPig]

She sounds like a nightmare. "Ahahaha I think you'll find he's mistaken a simile for a metaphor!" And it actually goes "Oh oh, I'm trapped like a fool, I'm in a cage" so tell her to take her quip and stick it up her arse, Rizla, I hate her.

oh, see you've just edited it.

[BlodwynPig]

Jam and Lewis were on fire round about this time, the whole Criticize album is very good.

Hearsay - yes, a cold stone 8/10 album (just a couple of softer ballads that wander nowhere for me. Love the 'intros' they do on the songs. Pure class. Despite the model heavy video, it still seems pretty innocent - like a period just before the nation (US) got sucked into serious addiction and strife (I know this is false). The drummer lady used to play in Fanny and has just released an album with Runaways' Cherie Currie (2019). Her daughter was a playboy playmate I think in the same year she starred in this video (and is married to scumbag Nikki Sixx and was done for cocaine smuggling). However, she and her granddaughter (Sixx's daughter) just won a cake decorating competition on some US reality show. Crikey.

I've tracked down one of the keyboardists (Actress AJ Johnson), but would like to know who the lady in the yellow top (on keyboards too) - some much energy. The bit from 0:15 - 0:22 (Alexander's odd fourth wall breaking eyes) is probably the best 7 seconds I've experienced this year.

[SpiderChrist]

Michael Ingram - Yah Mo Be There

Duet with Michael McDonald

https://youtu.be/MJTiDMfDeyE

Also Violet Wills' Dare To Dream, just love everything about this tune

https://youtu.be/K0tr5BUgcDQ

[Better Midlands]

Hearsay - yes, a cold stone 8/10 album (just a couple of softer ballads that wander nowhere for me. Love the 'intros' they do on the songs. Pure class.

Yeah, IIRC correctly the b-side starts to lag a bit as it's more ballad heavy, still amazing productions and plenty of DX7s.
I'm a fan of the skits too, never heard that sort of thing before but it ties the album together really well.

Alex baby wait for me.

[Better Midlands]

Michael Ingram - Yah Mo Be There

Duet with Michael McDonald

There's a lovely Jellybean dub of that.

The full 9 minute version of SOS Band - Just Be Good To Me is a masterclass too.

[SpiderChrist]

There's a lovely Jellybean dub of that.

Yes! Think it's on the b-side of the 12" (that I have knocking around somewhere)

[non capisco]

The full 9 minute version of SOS Band - Just Be Good To Me is a masterclass too.

Damn straight.

[SpiderChrist]

The full 9 minute version of SOS Band - Just Be Good To Me is a masterclass too.

Which leads us, inevitably, to this:

https://youtu.be/8fVhbccpkrU

[Better Midlands]

Yes! Think it's on the b-side of the 12" (that I have knocking around somewhere)

That's right, it's on the b-side of the remix 12".

My favourite from this period is Rene & Angela - I'll Be Good.

Have to post the classic Dennis Edwards - Don't Look Any Further video where he's gakked out of his mind.

[non capisco]

Oh man, definitely agree on Rene and Angela, WHAT a tune!

How about Peanut Butter by Gwen Guthrie

We might be getting too far back into the eighties for the OP's remit with this one but I Need Your Lovin' by Teena Marie ?

And sticking with early 80s Murphy's Law by Cheri , a surprise "I don't remember this at all but it's great!" favourite from back in the mists of time in the Oscillations TOTP thread.

[SpiderChrist]

Oh boy, I'm enjoying this thread

Anthony & Danette - Higher Than A Kite

https://youtu.be/GUIMxv2SdhM