Soul Express Album Review  Buy this album from our CD Shop
STARPOINT: Dutch Vinyl Masterpiece, 2005 Wanting You – Do What You Wanna Do – Angel – Last Night – Try Me – Shake It Out – Break Up To Make Up – Starnite You Nite I’m having a bit of a Starpoint fest at the moment, but what the heck! Great music needs trumpeting whoever it is and whenever it was released, and this album will be no exception. Released in 1981 "Wanting You" is yet another foray into sublime soul and 80s boogie which has now become so important to me. I really feel at home in this particular era, and even though I still pursue all new releases I can, I am always drawn back in time to this great period. The dancing shoes need to be on from word go here – the relentless beat of the title song takes few prisoners and showcases Renee Diggs’ smouldering vocal talents perfectly. "Do What You Wanna Do" treads the same pathy, and does the business, though perhaps in more of a dated fashion that grooves such as "All Night Long" and so on. More essential is the warm, spacious "Angel" which has echoes of the kind of material Atlantic Starr would have done in their "Touch A Four Leaf Clover" period – again the vocals blister and the rhodes work well. Funkier business is tabled with the discreet yet flirty "Last Night" – the moog synth a la Michael Henderson’s "I Can’t Help It" is dirty and in your face, and the tinkling keys add sparkle and urgency to an already pulsating groove. Excellent! Those into a more summery, relaxed groove will immediately plumb for the superb midtempo number, "Try Me", and rightly so. Songs like this are timeless and will sound great in another 25 years time even if the more uptempo numbers fade away. Quality will always win over, and all credit to Vinyl Masterpiece for breathing new life into these collectors’ albums. "Shake It Out" flows in a funkier, looser groove and the vocals chant more than sing and adds a touch of P-Funk to the proceedings. Not bad either. The song that I really do not like is the cover of The Stylistics’ classic "Break Up To Make Up". It’s not that they have done a bad job per se, far from it, in fact. It is how I as an individual take to the song. I am so in love with the original record and have such love and respect to Thom Bell and his magical arrangements, which entails that anything else simply will not do. So, as you will gather, this is unfairness and bias on my part. As long as I am honest about it I see no problem, so as I say you listen and you be the judge. There’s no better critic or judge than your own ears – I am irrelevant at the end of the day! The superb dancer, "Starnite Your Nite", soon reset my attention and also sadly closes the album. Thankfully we have much longer albums nowadays, but at least back in the early 80s we had the consistency and the quality to make up for it. Another recommended release and wholeheartily recommended. -Barry Towler Other Fresh CD Reviews Albums of the Month in 2005 Albums of the Month in 2004 Albums of the Month in 2003 Albums of the Month in 2002 Albums of the Month in 2001 Albums of the Month in 2000 Albums of the Month in 1999 Albums of the Month in 1998 Albums of the Month in 1997 |
