LP Review: I Remember Yesterday
Released: 1977
LP Charts: #11 R&B, #18 pop
Well folks, not all growth is linear.
After continuously improving four albums in a row, Donna Summer finally regresses on I Remember Yesterday, an album to pay homage to various female pop vocal styles of eras gone by. Fortunately, Summer once more had a hand in writing almost all the material here AND there is a fantastic song buried here that made this ostensible regression a breakthrough for all of pop music.
Before the breakthrough, the homage material…
The concept behind this album only worked well on “Love’s Unkind” (#3 UK). It is a JAMMING update on the early ‘60s girl group pop that presaged disco in the first place, so it’s unsurprising it sounds perfectly at home under the command of Summer. Imagine the Crystals or the Ronettes having some phat disco bass and slamming drums to sing over. That’s this song. Even better, it’s freed from the three-minute pop formula of 1963, so a saxophone is allowed to stretch out to full beautiful effect instead of sticking around for only 10 seconds or so.
Less effective are the odes to jazz from the Prohibition Era (“I Remember Yesterday”) and to the ladies of Motown (“Back In Love Again”). Also underwhelming is the contemporary “Black Lady”—an ineffective funk track. “Take Me” is another recording of contemporary sounds, but it is better cuz it injects some eurodisco to the proceedings.
The most incongruous song of all is “Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over)”. It’s one of Summer’s awkward attempts at balladry. She could do a ballad (see the previous album’s “Winter Melody”), but this ballad is way too slow and vapid.
So all of this amounts to what is a pretty meh album in total.
But producer Giorgio Moroder had an ace up his sleeve. Since they were paying homage to historical and then contemporary female singing, why not take a stab at the future of female singing?
Well, that led to “I Feel Love” (#9 R&B, #6 pop, #3 disco, #1 UK), one of the most important songs in the history of pop music. Built entirely on programmed and electronic instruments, this became Summer’s first hit radio track since “Love to Love You Baby” two years earlier.
Her icy, aloof delivery is right in tune with the mechanistic, monotonous beat. This shit sounded like nothing else on the radio at the time and is still a certified jam.
ALBUM GRADE: C
Saved by the brilliance of “I Feel Love”, this album is still a cluttered mess. However, since this mess did give us the first popular electronic dance song we’re all better for it. Furthermore, Summer would launch into the stratosphere following this album, which went gold (her fourth in a row), with a string of monster singles.
Song Scores
I Remember Yesterday: 6/10
Love’s Unkind: 7.5/10
Back In Love Again: 5/10
Black Lady: 5/10
Take Me: 6/10
Can't We Just Sit Down (And Talk It Over): 5/10
I Feel Love: 10/10