LP Review: Garden Of Love
Released: 1980
Read that title out loud to yourself as you stare at the cartoon album cover.
Garden of Love.
By Rick James.
Yep, this thing ain’t a high water mark for Mr. James as he inexplicably abandons the successfully harder-edged funk (even with its disco leanings) that marked Fire It Up for a failed attempt at being Teddy Pendergrass.
The Good… Well, the OKAY… News
“Big Time” is one of the incredibly rare songs that James did not write (or even co-write) on his albums. This thang is actually very enjoyable musically, but the lyrics are supremely stupid. Nothing is more boring than hearing a music star sing about becoming a big music star. But the band saves this operation with Daniel LeMelle giving his usually heroic effort on saxophone. Plus the beat is a good example LA pop fused with disco.
James goes all in on disco-funk with “Mary-Go-Round”. The groove here never catches total fire, but it also never gets to the point of boredom or annoyance. Good background/writing/cleaning music.
The No News
“Don’t Give Up On Love” is a languid ballad that’s hits no sweet spots, but also doesn’t do any harm. On Fire It Up it would have been the low point of the album. Instead, it is a relative high point on Garden Of Love.
Ditto for “Summer Love”, which has hints of goodness that never take full form. At least James would revisit the basic elements of this track to create the much better “Make Love To Me” on his Street Songs LP.
The Bad News
“Island Lady” is embarrassing. A mostly acoustic ballad is not Rick James’s forte. The sparse setting disastrously exposes his vocal limitations, especially his big whiny belt at the end. The lyrics stink. There aren’t hooks. There aren’t any engaging instrumentals. It’s just pure puff.
“Gettin’ It On (In the Sunshine)” isn’t as bad, but is utterly ridiculous as the first half maintains the sparse setting of “Island Lady” while the second half of the song switches over to a big stomping beat… I suppose that’s the cue you’re supposed to be “gettin’ it on” but who would want to get it on with this corny music?
ALBUM GRADE: D+
James’s turn as a wannabe love man didn’t go too well. It’s not simply that the music was underwhelming. It seemed to be not Rick James. Tellingly, the two best songs on the album are the funky dance tracks. Deservedly, this album flopped “big time”: #17 R&B and #83 pop. Fortunately, this caused a re-calibration of his efforts leading to the best album of James’s career.
Song Scores
Big Time: 6.5/10
Don’t Give Up On Love: 6/10
Island Lady: 3/10
Gettin’ It On (In the Sunshine): 4/10
Summer Love: 5/10
Mary-Go-Round: 6.5/10