Description

Following the success of his debut album, Alexander O’Neal capitalised on the emergence of the Minneapolis funk/soul sound, made popular by Prince, and reunited with James Harris and Terry Lewis for his second release. Being compared at the time to Luther Vandross and Freddie Jackson, O’Neal showed his versatility as a vocalist by demonstrating his talents with upbeat tracks like (What Can I Say) To Make You Love Me and slower love declaring ballads like Sunshine ‘I can’t go a day without my sunshine’ showing the maturity and passion of his lyrics and performance. What makes this albummore… a joy to listen to is that each song is intertwined with a party scene monologue, for example the listener overhears a private conversation between 2 women discussing the rumour that Alex is seeing Kim, the basis being the intro to the album’s title track ‘it’s nothing but hearsay’. But what Alex also manages to accomplish is going one step further than some of his contemporaries, whereby gritting his teeth and going on the defensive to deliver the album’s raw tracks Fake and Criticize, which he co-wrote. He is then able to bring the amour back to the table with Crying Overtime and Never Knew Love Like This, in which sees him once again duet with label mate Cherrelle. O’Neal selfishly shows his vocal range on all of the cuts, in particular The Lovers where he begins to sing using his silky baritone before climaxing the song with a soulfully passionate tenor pitch. The song writing and producing talents of duo James ‘Jam’ Harris and Terry Lewis are on display in fine glory, and one can understand why this pair went on to become two of the most successful writing duo’s in American music history. Their lyrics demonstrate abstract subtexts that fuse a relatively new sound for when this album was released ‘every night the tears fall from my eyes to wash away the loneliness’ gives the impression that these words not only came from the heart but also from experience. O’Neal performs each track in a personal style that feels as if he fully understands the message behind the logic. Being at slightly over 45 minutes in duration, the final track When The Party’s Over has the ability to suggest everything but that, leaving a lasting impression that Alex will be back! Alexander O’Neal infuses the edgy sound of soul/funk with a sexiness that makes women quiver and men buy the roses and book the restaurant table. His deliverance on this album is flawless, the only disappointment being that the album is only 9 tracks. This album spent 103 weeks in the UK album charts and spawned a remix album, but surprisingly failed to reach the coveted number 1 spot. Having recently been re-released on CD, Hearsay sounds as vibrant and entertaining today as it did 2 decades ago. In my opinion, it is one of the most under rated soul albums of all time.

Tracks

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Info:

Category:

Music > Albums

Case Type:

CD

Release Type:

Retail

Comments:

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Cover Info:

Title:

Alexander O'Neal - Hearsay (2003) Retail CD

Part:

Front

Dimensions:

1736 x 1736 px

Size:

463 KB

Downloads:

170 (0 today)

Uploaded:

Report a Problem Wrong Cover Duplicate Image Bad Quality Wrong Info

06/08/09 by musicworld

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