LP Review: In The Night-Time
Released: 1978
LP Charts: #5 R&B, #38 pop
After the uneven sophomore album Goin’ Places failed to push forward his promising career, Michael Henderson struck back mightily with In The Night-Time, easily the zenith of his commercial appeal. Peaking at #5 on the R&B albums register it was certified gold by the RIAA; Henderson’s first and only album to get such a certification.
Side 1 of In The Night-Time is a tour-de-force of funk and soul.
“Take Me I’m Yours”, a duet with Rena Scott, starts the album off splendidly. If you feel like chilling, this song can serve the mood. If you feel like dancing, it can serve that too. Feel like gettin’ it on, this song can also start that off too. Given its variety of possible moods, it’s unsurprising when it was released as a single, “Take Me I’m Yours” sailed up to #3 on the R&B singles chart.
The true intentions of “Take Me I’m Yours” might be revealed by the album’s next song: “We Can Go On”. Ain’t no mistakin’ this song’s purpose. It is definitely made for gettin’ it on. And it’s more than just cheap love-making music. After the dramatic finish of its preceding track, “We Can Go On” slowly creeps up on you with Henderson’s ghostly bass guitar and a trumpet that sounds like it’s haunting the halls of an abandoned home. The song eventually gives way to a slow funk groove that appropriately goes on for a good while.
After the sexy soul of “We Can Go On”, Henderson sharply changes the album’s mood with the instrumental “Happy”. Henderson has himself a festival of slap bass on a track befitting a contemporaneous Parliament album like Motor Booty Affair.
Side 1 finishes with “In the Night-Time” (#15 R&B), which is Cadillac cruising music of the highest order and the best song on the album. Featuring an understated but highly effective horn and string chart, this song slowly worms its way to higher and higher levels of emotion. It goes from cool, calm, and collected in the intro to borderline outta control by the end. And I mean that in the best way possible.
Sadly, Side 2 of the LP doesn’t quite bring the heat like the first side. It’s still good, just not great.
“One To One” is a routine funk workout. “Whisper In My Ear” is good clavinet funk… except it runs for just over seven minutes thus wearing out its welcome in the repetitive process. “Yours Truly, Indiscreetly” is yet another funk jam, with a bit of rock mixed in, but has the good sense to end after 3:45. Ironically, “Am I Special” is a by-the-numbers soul ballad for Henderson. I think it’s a good song, but no denying he’s starting to show a formula with the soft ballad featuring prominent saxophone noodling. For now it’s good, but on his next LP there would be an atrocious example.
ALBUM GRADE: B+
As I already said, the first side of this LP is exciting and great landing in A- territory. The second half is a relative letdown, but still good in the end. The B-/B range. So balances out to a B+.
Song Scores
Take Me I’m Yours: 8.5/10
We Can Go On: 7.5/10
Happy: 7.5/10
In the Night-Time: 9/10
Whisper In My Ear: 6.5/10
Am I Special: 7/10
Yours Truly, Indiscreetly: 7/10
One To One: 6/10