The Beginning of A New Era
02/08/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"From the poppy synths to the tight,slick grooves of urban contemporary. From the happy proclamation of love in the opening title track, to the painfully romantic lament of Cindy, this disc is compelling. The fact that many critics dismissed it, upon release, such as Ron Wynn, who in 2 words summed up his opinion "Rather Drab" kept many from making this a purchase of theirs. There's also a demeaning factor that A&M upon closing in the mid nineties (it opened again in 1999) deleted a great deal of its catalog...including every album by Herb Alpert (co-owner of the label) and Gato Barbieri...saving only huge hitmakers such as Janet Jackson, Sting, Sheryl Crow, among others. They did still print Osbornes first albums but in limited quantity and only kept one LTD disc in print as well. Hopefully Universal will at least reprint these albums so people can hear this mans voice. its there, its hot, and its still so entertaining. If they were remastered it might even make me re-buy them. Get this if you can!"
Still a superb album.
Preston | nc | 01/28/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I wanted to get this album when it came out back in 1988, but I got it in summer '89. I can't tell you how many times I sang along to She's On The Left and All Because of You and its spare sections! Can't Go Back on A Promise I still like! The other songs like One Love, One Dream, Cindy, You Can't Get Love from A Stone are some other super efforts. Jeffrey Osborne had his 5th best album after the '82, '83, '84 and '86 albums with this one. I never thought that he would pull this one off in a year that Bobby Brown, Keith Sweat and Al B Sure dominated R&B but he proved to be just as competitive. One of his finest works as an artist and a more mature sounding effort too."