LP Review: In A Special Way
Released: 1983
LP Charts: #4 R&B, #36 pop
Well, folks, we’ve reached peak DeBarge. Hands down their best album as El DeBarge fully blossomed into a savant striking the perfect balance between individual brilliance being cradled and nurtured by a dynamic group. The very next album would find this balance completely destroyed.
But first let’s enjoy the good times with El, Mark, Bunny, James, and Randy DeBarge!
The opening “Be My Lady” is a nice midtempo dance track, but we’re really here to enjoy the amazing “Stay With Me”. Perfection with a piano riff to die for. That short ballad fades away on shadowy strings, which leads into the triumphal “Time Will Reveal” (#1 R&B, #18 pop, #12 adult contemporary). It starts off appropriately quiet having come on the heels of “Stay With Me”, but soon the group is letting their vocals tower over an ode to rock solid love that will ease all your burdens.
“Need Somebody” is another midtempo number with hints of reggae. A nice respite before we get the splendiferous “Love Me In A Special Way”. This song has gospel written all over it from the opening solo piano to the backing vocals swaying like a Sunday morning choir. Oh and Stevie Wonder gives a brief harmonica solo to place a cherry on top of it all.
The one misstep on this album is repeating “Queen Of My Heart” from their debut LP The DeBarges. It’s a good song. We just ain’t need no repeats here. Anyhoo, we get two dance tracks afterwards. “Baby, Won't Cha Come Quick” is yet another midtempo number while “I Give up on You” is the one true uptempo song here. Personally, I really dig the synth bass it puts forward.
To conclude In A Special Way, a DeBarge not named “El” gets the mic and Bunny makes the most of it with the haunting “A Dream”. The album’s fourth classic song, Bunny gives a virtuoso performance over yet another piano riff to die for. Trust me, hip-hop producers raided this song and “Stay With Me” time after time in the ‘90s and early 2000s.
ALBUM GRADE: A
A damn good album… a damn great album. And another gold album for DeBarge.
Song Scores
Be My Lady: 7/10
Stay With Me: 10/10
Time Will Reveal: 9/10
Need Somebody: 7.5/10
Love Me In A Special Way: 9/10
Queen Of My Heart: 7.5/10
Baby, Won't Cha Come Quick: 7.5/10
I Give up on You: 8/10
A Dream: 9/10