I took a couple of listens to this album for the first time in the last few days. I don't think I've listened to it in nearly 40 years. I still prefer their debut, and the 80s production style sometimes grates on me, but there's no denying the appeal of the singles (I think "Magic" is a summertime classic), and some of the album tracks hold up too (for me, "Looking for Love" and "Heartbeat City").
It's interesting to note that the band reached a commercial high point with this album and peaked with a greatest hits release the next year, but then the whole enterprise fell apart a few years after that. I'm curious about how that all unfolded. It's ironic that sometimes the greatest success has an inverse correlation to the amount of happiness it brings, although maybe that's not a factor in this case.
I don't have as many problems with 80s production as other music fans do, probably in large part because 1984 is when music fully bloomed for me. If I'd heard their debut first, I'm sure I'd have a different perspective. Glad to hear that you were inspired to listen after reading and that some of the songs worked for you.
That's a good point about Heartbeat City being their commercial high point and then it all going downhill from there. Maybe they were just a band built for the short burst - that 1978-1984 window saw a lot of great songs from them.
I took a couple of listens to this album for the first time in the last few days. I don't think I've listened to it in nearly 40 years. I still prefer their debut, and the 80s production style sometimes grates on me, but there's no denying the appeal of the singles (I think "Magic" is a summertime classic), and some of the album tracks hold up too (for me, "Looking for Love" and "Heartbeat City").
It's interesting to note that the band reached a commercial high point with this album and peaked with a greatest hits release the next year, but then the whole enterprise fell apart a few years after that. I'm curious about how that all unfolded. It's ironic that sometimes the greatest success has an inverse correlation to the amount of happiness it brings, although maybe that's not a factor in this case.
I don't have as many problems with 80s production as other music fans do, probably in large part because 1984 is when music fully bloomed for me. If I'd heard their debut first, I'm sure I'd have a different perspective. Glad to hear that you were inspired to listen after reading and that some of the songs worked for you.
That's a good point about Heartbeat City being their commercial high point and then it all going downhill from there. Maybe they were just a band built for the short burst - that 1978-1984 window saw a lot of great songs from them.