Every Home Should Have One
Artist: Patti Austin

The talented Patti Austin launched a successful jazz album career on CTI by the mid-'70s. Working with Quincy Jones since 1976, Every Home Should Have One was her long-awaited solo album with Jones as a producer. The hit singles "Do You Love Me" and "Every Home Should Have One" are polished -- pleasing but derivative. Rod Temperton -- who did... Read More

The Two of Us
Artist: Yarbrough & Peoples

This marked the debut release from the male/female duo, and their presence was immediately felt with the smash hit "Don't Stop the Music." Centered around dance lyrics, Alisa Peoples pushes the verse while Carvin Yarbrough sounds off the chorus with the help of an electronic vocalizer supported by some animated backing vocals. Though probably... Read More

Aymuk
Artist: Jeffrey Osborne
Community Score: 10.00
Can't Slow Down
Artist: Lionel Richie
Community Score: 5.77

On Can't Slow Down, his second solo album, Lionel Richie ran with the sound and success of his eponymous debut, creating an album that was designed to be bigger and better. It's entirely possible that he took a cue from Michael Jackson's Thriller, which set out to win over listeners of every corner of the mainstream pop audience, because Richie... Read More

So Excited
Artist: The Pointer Sisters
Community Score: 7.80

Sandwiched in between the heavy hitting Black and White and Break Out LPs, the Pointer Sisters' 1982 So Excited effort may not have managed the Top Ten, but impacted the scene nevertheless, as the group took three singles into charts that year. The opening, and best remembered track from the set, "I'm So Excited," delivered a punch-drunk, rapid... Read More

Stay With Me Tonight
Artist: Jeffrey Osborne
Community Score: 9.00

At this point, some fans might have been hoping that Jeffrey Osborne would return to his former group, L.T.D.. If Jeffrey Osborne cast doubt on that proposition, Stay With Me Tonight made it so that even L.T.D. fanatics didn't want to see it happen. Unlike many R&B acts who either went solo and/or did pop-ish work, Osborne earned raves for... Read More

Jeffrey Osborne
Artist: Jeffrey Osborne
Community Score: 9.00

As vocalist for the group L.T.D., Osborne's booming voice led hits like "Love Ballad," "Where Did We Go Wrong," and "Shine On." The group enjoyed constant success and offered a catalog of well-executed and classic albums including 1977's Something to Love and Togetherness from 1978. In 1982 it came as a complete shock when Osborne made his solo... Read More

Thriller
Artist: Michael Jackson
Community Score: 8.31
Lalah Hathaway
Artist: Lalah Hathaway
Community Score: 6.83

When Lalah Hathaway's self-titled debut album came out in 1990, there was reason to believe that she might evolve into one of the top female R&B singers of the 1990s. Donny Hathaway's daughter certainly had a lot going for her -- not only a big vocal range, but also plenty of charisma, passion, and charm to go with it. The material on this CD... Read More

The Glow of Love
Artist: Change
Community Score: 10.00

To Change's detractors, the studio group was nothing more than a poor man's Chic. But knowledgeable disco and R&B enthusiasts knew better; Change wasn't a carbon copy of Chic any more than jazz great Chet Baker was a clone of Miles Davis. Without question, Change was heavily influenced by the Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards sound; nonetheless,... Read More

The Real Me
Artist: Patti Austin

And how! Austin tackles standards such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me," and succeeds brilliantly. Her version of Comden, Green, and Bernstein's "I Can Cook, Too" is enough by itself to make this a pick. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read More