LP Review: Cupid's In Fashion
Released: 1982
LP Charts: #49 R&B, #202 Pop
After Shine made Average White Band totally faceless and rewarded them with a commercial bomb, the group decided to keep things a bit funkier on this release by ditching David Foster. Not a bad producer, just not the right dude for AWB.
Instead they brought in some cool cats like Dan Hartman to write “You're My Number One”. Say what you will about Hartman, but that man can make a fun song and this song, while not extraordinary, is fun as it shows how AWB could do LA pop without losing their soul; something that happened way too much on Shine.
Early ‘80s R&B/post-disco wiz Kashif gifts the band “Easier Said Than Done”. It definitely buries AWB into Kashif’s formula of synth-bass driven jams, but I’m a sucker for Kashif’s synth-bass driven jams, so I give the midtempo number more credit than it probably deserves.
Hope you enjoyed those two songs dance numbers, cuz “You Wanna Belong” stinks. Who wants a big, overblown, drippy ballad? Not me!
Shit, “Cupid’s In Fashion” is a dance number that also stinks. This album is about to go downhill fast ain’t it?
“Theatre Of Excess” confirms my fears as AWB fails at doing funk-rock.
“I Believe” temporarily stops the bleeding, but that song was stolen from Donna Summer’s then-unreleased album I’m A Rainbow. Her version is superior, but this one from AWB is enjoyable synthpop/post-disco.
Stop the presses! “Is It Love That You're Running From” actually sounds like AWB! I mean it’s still very much early 80s R&B, but you can see this as the logical extension of the band’s evolution instead of some of this other stuff where they’re doing gimmicks or being put into someone else’s formulaic machinations.
Man… they went and covered “Reach Out, I’ll Be There”. And it totally sucks. There’s no recovering from this. It’s one of the worst songs I’ve ever heard.
“Isn’t It Strange” and “Love’s A Heartache” end the album. Neither are bad, but the stench of “Reach Out” lingers horribly in the air.
ALBUM GRADE: D-
I hate to give them such a low grade, cuz there really are some decent songs on here. A couple are even good! But holy shit is there some garbage too.
Unsurprisingly, Average White Band broke up after this album bombed even worse than Shine.
Song Scores
You're My Number One: 7/10
Easier Said Than Done: 6.5/10
You Wanna Belong: 3/10
Cupid’s In Fashion: 3/10
Theatre Of Excess: 2/10
I Believe: 6.5/10
Is It Love That You're Running From: 6/10
Reach Out, I’ll Be There: 0/10
Isn’t It Strange: 5/10
Love’s A Heartache: 6.5/10