Dangerous – Michael Jackson

This album was originally released in late 1991 and was of course the long-awaited follow-up to 1987’s “Bad” album. By this stage, Michael had done away his usual producer, legendary jazz musician Quincy Jones and replaced him with a then 22 year old fella by the name of Teddy Reily. Those of you up on your new jack swing will know exactly who I mean. New Jack Swing was all the rage in the late ’80s/early ’90s and who better to do an album within that style other than Michael Jackson? Sure, why not? Since it was such a drastic change in musical styles for Jackson, I wasn’t exactly too thrilled with this album when I first heard it. Matter of fact I could not comprehend all the hype surrounding it.

Diamonds And Pearls – Prince

Prince released the “Diamonds & Pearls” album, his overall fourteenth long-player, in 1991 via his Paisley Park record label. It was the first ever album which was attributed to “Prince and the New Power Generation,” as opposed to “Prince & The Revolution” or simply just “Prince” on his own. It also had a holographic cover. Some of the musicians in this particular line up included an old childhood friend of Prince’s on bass called Sonny Thompson, a drummer by the name of Michael Bland, keyboardist Tommy Barbarella, guitarist Levi Seacer Jr and two male dancers by the name of Tony Mosely and Kirky Johnson, known collectively as The Gameboys. Prince had actually met the pair back in 1984 while he was making his “Purple Rain” album, but he never really had a need for them until he did this album.

3121 – Prince

In early 2005 Prince won an NAACP Award, which is the National Association for the Advancement of Colour People. It was after winning this award that he dazzled the crowd with performances of James Brown’s “Don’t Give Me Nothin I’ll Get It Myself,” Aretha Franklin’s “I’ll Never Love A Man the Way I Love You” and of course classics such as “Housequake,” “The Bird” and “Jungle Love – both of which were performed by Morris Day himself. When this performance was over and done, he turned his back to the crowd and revealed four cryptic numbers: “3121.” It turned out that this was to be the name of his next album, which was pronounced “Thirty One Twenty One” and officially released a full year after he had made this particular appearance.

Thriller – Michael Jackson

Even though his fourth album “Off The Wall” still managed to become a worldwide success, Michael Jackson was simply not content with the fact that it failed to become a humungous, worldwide smash. As a matter of fact, it has even been reported that when he didn’t receive a whole slew Grammy Award for all his troubles, he was so mad that he actually broke down and wept. Obviously it was after experiencing such emotions that he decided to start thinking outside the box. He knew that this time around, he absolutely had to do something that was going to make the world stand back in complete and total awe. And that’s exactly what he did.

Love In Stereo – Rahsaan Patterson

I wrote this review back in 2007.. I thought it was already on my blog, but…..obviously not. There could be a few errors in the review for all I know. Also I’m betting that a few of my opinions may’ve changed since writing the review, but I’m gonna just leave it all in there. Sure, why not? Check it out.

This album was Rahsaan’s second offering and was to be his final album for MCA Records. Originally released in 1999, there were two different versions of “Love In Stereo” available in stores – a standard version with a blue cover, and a reddish brown one (that was a little in-joke for all of the Prince heads reading this review) which featured an enhanced portion.

The “Jacksons” Skit on “Hey Hey It’s Saturday”

On Wednesday October 7th 2009, an Australian variety show, which I watched religiously as a child called “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” aired their second reunion special. Both episodes were aired after the show was taken off the air in 1999. One of the segments in the show is a mock talent show called “Red Faces,” which sees amateur entertainers trying to receive a high score from a panel of celebrity judges and also trying to avoid being “gonged” by Hey Hey’s very own, spiteful judge Red Symonds, who is also the guitar player in the house band on the show. He also used to play guitar in the Aussie rock band, Skyhooks. Hence the name – “Red Faces.” It’s basically a send-up of an actual real-life talent show called “New Faces.”

Stronger Than Pride – Sade

This album was released in 1988 and was the follow-up to Sade’s third album “Promise” from 1985. It was after this album that she took one hell of a longass pause and more or less got on with her life. Then she released “Love Deluxe” in 1992. Ah, these artists….and their fart-assery. Nah, I shouldn’t say that, they’re artists, they’ve got to get it right. Instead of just throwing anything together and then putting it out. OK, back to the review..we’re gettin’ just a little too sidetracked here. About as much as I can tell you, is that I had Sade’s “Stronger Than Pride” in my record collection pretty much since it first came out all of those years ago.

Love Deluxe – Sade

In 1992, Sade decided that it was time to release another album, something she hadn’t done since 1988. Yep. It took her four freakin’ years just to make that difficult fourth album of hers. Why it took so long, I don’t know. I’d imagine she was just plain old getting on with her life and….I suppose in order to write heartfelt songs like she does, you need to really get out there and see what’s happening. Otherwise, how are you gonna write in the first place? I guess you’d have to ask her for yourself, though. Although it was a pretty long time ago now, so it’s possible that she may’ve even forgotten whatever the hell it was that she was doing when she was finished making this disc.

Suddenly – Billy Ocean

In 1984, Billy Ocean decided that it was time for commercial success, so he decided to leave his old home, Epic Records and sign up to a brand new record label all together, called Jive. He then decided to get together with a songwriter and producer by the name of Keith Diamond who took his trademark laidback funky soul sound and injected some rock and pop elements into the mix. Soon after, Billy issued his first ever hit album “Suddenly,” which was actually his fifth album overall.

Secret Weapon – Marcel

This is the fifth, fully independent album by the artist born Andre Marcel Wilson. It was originally released in 2004 but brought to my attention back in 2005 while I was buying myself some 12inch singles in an independent record store down here in Sydney. One of the songs instantly caught my ear because of the fact that it sounded so much like an old Prince song from the ’80s, so I asked the guy at the counter what CD it was. He said “I think he’s a Prince fan” and proceeded to show me the rest of the songs on the album.