LP Review: In The Storm
Released: 1992
LP Charts: nada
In The Storm didn’t sell, but it’s El DeBarge’s best solo album. While still having control of his musical destiny, El brought in many of his musical lodestars such as Maurice White, Larry Graham, and Prince to help make an early ‘90s soul/funk album. And I am so glad this is a soul/funk album, not an early ‘90s RnB or New Jack Swing album. It has influences of both, but this is El dipping deep into his soul for one final album that tries to touch the hem of a masterpiece robe.
“Fast Lane” is funk delivered from George Clinton’s Mothership with a guest rap from Kool Moe Dee. This funky good time is immediately slowed down for a soulful cover of Marvin Gaye’s “After the Dance”. The funky good time immediately returns with the P-Funk-meets-Stevie-Wonder jam of “My Heart Belongs To You”.
“Love Me Tonight” is a generic early 90s ballad saved by El’s vocals and intermittent squiggles of synthesizer.
The boogie strikes back with “You Know What I Like”, which has an energetic lightly funky beat. The funk ratchets up further with a contribution from Prince, “Tip O’ My Tongue”. I thoroughly enjoy the injection of a full horn section here instead of a lonely saxophone. If we gettin’ funky, LET’S GET FUNKY. In fact, the song reaches maximum funk, well what passed for maximum funk in the early ‘90s, when the background singers begin chanting “boot-ayyyyy!” in the same vein as from the Sly & the Family Stone classic “Loose Booty”.
Okay… we have the title track. Its heart is in the right place, but it’s a boring moralizing plea against drugs, etc. Pass.
Alright, back to funk with “Thick” and its fat horns. Beautiful. “Another Chance” is midtempo R&B that runs a little too long (7:51), but can’t gripe too much. It’s good stuff tastefully performed. Man, we get whiplash again as “Leggs” gives us more horn-juiced funk that crosses P-Funk chants with the chicken-pluck guitar of Minneapolis funk.
After generally being something quite special, this album finishes up on two generic songs: the pedestrian “Special” and the boring “You Turn Me On” that manages to catch somewhat of a groove toward its end. Since these two songs come at the very end of a long album, I’m always tempted to skip them.
ALBUM GRADE: B
If you’ve read my reviews of 1990s albums, you know I hate how they got bloated and here we have a prime example. Clocking in at 72 minutes, In the Storm coulda easily been a very strong B+ album, if the worst two or three songs were excised. But they weren’t. We got bloat, we got a solid B album. Still a good thing. You’ll likely enjoy this if you’re into funk and soul.
Amazingly, despite being the best solo El DeBarge album, it sold the worst. I hate the public sometimes.
Song Scores
Fast Lane: 7.5/10
After the Dance: 7/10
My Heart Belongs To You: 7/10
Love Me Tonight: 6.5/10
You Know What I Like: 7.5/10
Tip O' My Tongue: 8/10
In the Storm: 5/10
Thick: 7.5/10
Another Chance: 7/10
Leggs: 7.5/10
You Turn Me On: 6/10
Special: 6/10