LP Review: Touch
Released: 1980
LP Charts: #7 R&B, #51 pop
Over their previous four albums, Con Funk Shun maintained a great balance between funk and soul, jams and sweetness. That balance gets thrown out of whack on Touch as the sweetness and soul push the funk and jams toward the corner. Furthermore, the album sounds a bit uninspired and muddled. I legitimately think the budget for cutting this album was itself cut. These songs just don’t sound as a crisp as their previous effort, Spirit of Love (A-).
(If the budget was trimmed, I wouldn’t be surprised since Touch hit the charts a mere eight months after Spirit of Love. That’s a tight release schedule even by 1970s/80s standards.)
A dispiriting indicator for Touch’s lackluster sound is the album-closing instrumental. The band had always had an instrumental on their albums and they were always soothing and interesting, if not outright introspective. This album’s instrumental, “Play Widit”, is none of those things. Not inherently bad, but it doesn’t really replace those great attributes with anything of equal greatness. It’s serviceable, but not special.
Another sad indicator is the funk jam “Lady’s Wild”. It’s the hardest funk on the album but its groove hits nowhere near as hard as something like “Chase Me”. Plus I can barely hear what the band is singing as the vocals and instruments are all mushed together in the song mix.
It wouldn’t be a Con Funk Shun album without slow and boring Pilate ballads. This album’s entry in that collection are “Welcome Back to Love”and “Can’t Say Goodbye”. The latter is particularly egregious in its slowness and boringness.
And the ballads aren’t the only place where Con Funk Shun slips. “Kidnapped!” is pretty lazy funk lite despite the exclamation mark.
Okay having gone through the mediocre and disappointing, there are still three really good songs on this album.
Ostensibly, “Give Your Love To Me” has all the makings of yet another slow and boring Pilate Ballad, HOWEVER the band decides to swerve into a jazzy lane injecting a jazzy guitar solo and then a trombone solo. These nice touches ensure the ballad is classy instead of languid.
“Too Tight” (#8 R&B, #40 pop) is a delightful dose of funk-pop befitting Earth, Wind & Fire. This is a sound made for BBQs, family reunions, and skating rinks.
And finally there’s “Pride and Glory”, which has a nice, flowing groove twirled around a sinewy lead electric guitar. If only there were more exciting songs like it on this album.
ALBUM GRADE: B-
This album did not go gold and I can’t blame the public of 1980/81 for not buying it in droves. Touch still has moments of goodness surrounded by more average music than the typical Con Funk Shun album. In the end, a relatively disappointing album, but a positive listening experience overall.
Song Scores
Too Tight: 8/10
Lady’s Wild: 6/10
Give Your Love To Me: 7/10
Pride And Glory: 7/10
Kidnapped!: 5/10
Welcome Back to Love: 5/10
Touch: 6/10
Can’t Say Goodbye: 4/10
Play Widit: 6/10