LP Review: Heart, Mind and Soul
After Released: 1994
LP Charts: #24 R&B; #137 pop
Despite being superb artistically, In The Storm didn’t sell shit back in 1992. An unsurprising consequence was that El DeBarge decided to make a hard commercial turn on his next album: Heart, Mind and Soul.
Basically, how much you enjoy this album depends on how much mileage you get from Babyface, who El DeBarge collaborated with on most of this LP. Personally, I find Babyface generally catchy, if insidious. So, Heart, Mind and Soul unsurprisingly is a mixed bag for me. Babyface doesn’t try anything new here and feeds El all his standard keyboard washes and laidback beats. On the one hand, it means nothing here is bad, but on the other hand it does mean DeBarge sounds like he’s singing over some contemporary Toni Braxton mall music.
The opening “Where You Are” only stands out from the other Babyface productions because of Stevie Wonder’s marvelous harmonica playing. All the other contributions from ‘Face sound like shit you’ve heard before if you’ve heard ‘90s R&B. Again, that’s not to say it’s bad by any means… it’s just… too familiar yet somewhat alien in this context. I want to hear a DeBarge album not Braxton leftovers.
After the first four songs, we finally break out of Babyface jail with the funky “It’s Got To Be Real”. Now I finally feel like we got the real El DeBarge. Just as enjoyable is the Jermaine Dupri offering “Slide”, which has the slinky hip-hop style was known for. These two tracks are definitely keepers.
Oh great… another perfectly pedestrian Babyface song (“I’ll Be There”). Moving On.
“Special Lady” isn’t great, but it sounds different than the other songs, so that’s always a plus. I mean midtempo like most of the tracks, but it has its own updated for the mid-1990s late ‘80s groove.
It may be unfair for the rest of the songs, but “Starlight, Moonlight, Candlelight” sounds like a great ‘70s R&B groove, so it gets bumped to the top of the heap for me. Also, it was co-written by El with his brother Randy, who appears on backing vocals along with sister Bunny. That’ll explain the old school soul vibe.
Just so you know that I don’t treat all retro-grooves the same, “You Are My Dream” is another DeBarge ghostly falsetto slow jam, but it’s not as striking as “Starlight, Moonlight, Candlelight”. Still, I like it (really really like it) as Randy and James DeBarge show up to give this track some more DeBarge family harmonies.
Man, I really want another DeBarge album. Alas. That will never happen again.
The album concludes with “Heart, Mind and Soul”, which is clearly inspired by Marvin Gaye. Sounds like a mid-70s Gaye jam from I Want You. Hell, even that album’s co-producer and co-writer (Leon Ware) gives backing vocals.
ALBUM GRADE: B-
Maybe I should give this a C+, but I think my antipathy for standard-fare Babyface product colors my perception too much, so I will bump this album up to a B-. I don’t think other 90s R&B listeners find Babyface’s blandness as offensive as I do. Anyhoo, the non-Babyface tracks are pretty decent. El DeBarge isn’t breaking any new ground with this album, but this was a nice listen.
Song Scores
Where You Are: 7/10
Can’t Get Enough: 6/10
Where Is My Love: 5/10
You Got The Love I Want: 6/10
It's Got To Be Real: 7/10
Slide: 7/10
I’ll Be There: 6/10
Special Lady: 6.5/10
Starlight, Moonlight, Candlelight: 7.5/10
You Are My Dream: 7/10
Heart, Mind and Soul: 6.5/10