Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That
Artist: D-Mob
Community Score: 8.00

Those who consider house music one-dimensional must give a serious listen to D-Mob's unpredictable and appropriately titled A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That. Britain's D-Mob is the brainchild of producer/mixer Dancin' Danny D, who keeps things consistently soulful while showing us that house comes in many forms. While we're reminded... Read More

You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess
Artist: Yello
Community Score: 10.00

The seeds of Euro-dance sown on Claro Que Si reached fruition on Yello's next record, naturally titled You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess. There are fewer novelty synth tracks than before, those being replaced by a series of sleazy, deep-throated vocals on "I Love You," "Lost Again," "Heavy Whispers," and the title track. There are also a few... Read More

Life Is Something Special
Artist: Peech Boys
Community Score: 10.00
Solid Pleasure
Artist: Yello
Community Score: 7.00

The most varied and accomplished of any synth-pop debut, Yello's first album presents a few irresistible pop songs (the hit "Bostich," plus "Bimbo," and "Eternal Legs"), Boris Blank's synthesizer interpretations of several different forms of music ("Downtown Samba," "Bananas to the Beat," "Rock Stop," "Coast to Polka"), and even a three-song... Read More

Tom Tom Club - BONUS TRACKS
Artist: Tom Tom Club
Community Score: 6.75

"Who needs to think when your feet just go?" So sings Tina Weymouth on Tom Tom Club's debut album. And rightly so -- this was the sunny break in the islands that the rhythm section of Talking Heads wanted, and they got it, away from the art-school intellectualism that had resulted in the classic but understandably very unsunny Remain in Light.... Read More

She Works Hard for the Money
Artist: Donna Summer
Community Score: 8.83

Donna Summer's brassy, matter-of-fact mezzo does not play the sexy sanctified diva, and her musicians' crisp, loud beats don't evoke rapture or delirium. Instead, she and her rhythm men live up to the title of "She Works Hard for the Money." Here's praise for a waitress' 12-hour workday that sums up Summer's own post-dance queen job status, as... Read More

Greatest Hits
Artist: Ray Parker, Jr.

Though it isn't sequenced in chronological order -- in fact, it's sequenced a little bewilderingly -- Greatest Hits is nevertheless an excellent summation of Ray Parker, Jr.'s biggest hits; containing not just solo smashes like "Ghostbusters" and "The Other Woman," but also songs he sang during his time with Raydio. So, even if it could be... Read More

Girl You Know It's True
Artist: Milli Vanilli

A wise man, perhaps Giorgio Moroder (or maybe PT Barnum -- they all run together after a while), once said that it was possible to fool all the people all the time (or words to that effect), and if he was around in 1990, he would have used Milli Vanilli's multi-platinum, Grammy-winning, number one debut album, Girl You Know It's True, as proof.... Read More

Robbery
Artist: Teena Marie
Community Score: 10.00

A protracted absence from the studio (a one-year release gap in the '80s was equal to a five-year gap in the early 2000s) caused by a notorious legal dispute with Motown did little to stall Teena Marie's momentum. Robbery, Marie's fifth album and first for Epic, didn't perform nearly as well on the pop chart as 1981's It Must Be Magic, but the... Read More