Released: July 1983
After Friends, which was a really good album, Shalamar was starting to sound a bit stale. It was their fourth straight album of poppy soulful (post-)disco.
Well The Look still had Shalamar as a dance-pop act, but incorporated a whole lot of synthpop and new wave to the proceedings. The best part is none of it sounds forced! This could have been Shalamar’s best record if not for the presence of one unfortunately dreadful ballad.
In any case, this was Shalamar’s final LP with the Watley-Hewett-Daniel lineup. After the album’s release Watley and Daniel left leaving Hewett to steer the ship with a couple of meh newcomers. That’s in the future, though, let’s check out this album before trashing the final three Shalamar LPs.
The Look starts off with “Closer” letting you know this is a new kind of Shalamar that is still pretty close in spirit to the old one in terms of crafting catchy pop. One ominous sign, however, is that Howard Hewett’s lead is disturbingly dominant. The supporting vocals are unusually deeeep in the background.
There’s difference between backing singers or support singers and background singers. Watley and Daniel sound like background singers here.
Anyhoo, the excitement further ratchets up on “Dead Giveaway”, the album’s big single. It reached #10 R&B and #22 pop in the US becoming their first top 40 pop hit since “The Second Time Around”. It also gave Shalamar their fourth top 10 UK hit (#8) in just over a year. They were on fire over there.
However, Hewett again dominates the vocal department although a little less than on “Closer”. At least there’s a ripping guitar solo to bring diversity to the sound. Plus a manic stabbing of keyboard throughout.
Shalamar’s personnel situation had gotten so bad that by the time the group performed the song on Soul Train, Watley and Daniel had already left the group and their replacements were lip-synching to music they hadn’t performed.
“You Can Count On Me” is the worst Shalamar song since their absolutely garbage debut album Uptown Festival. It also is Hewett singing entirely alone. The backing vocals aren’t merely mixed deep in the back, they are completely absent.
Again ominous signs on the group’s future.
Finally on “Right Here” we get a duet between Hewett and Watley. The mid-tempo ballad is infectious and irresistible.
“No Limits (The Now Club)” is stupid new wave fun. It’s like a then-contemporary update on the Temptations’ “Psychedelic Shack” as the various members of Shalamar recite all the strange things you see at the fantasized “The Now Club”.
Well, if Hewett got some (nearly) solo songs, then Watley gets hers on “Disappearing Act” which is a spiritual ancestor of Watley’s mega solo hits like “Looking For A New Love” in the late 1980s.
“Over And Over” is slithery ballad that gets by on its moody synthesizers and Hewett’s impassioned vocals. Meanwhile, “You’re the One For Me” is another Hewett solo song masquerading as a Shalamar song. Still good though.
“You Won't Miss Love (Until It's Gone)” for my money is the best song on this album. It’s hauntingly hypnotic as the synthesizers and slap bass work together creating a moody atmosphere that Hewett navigates with a simultaneously angry and pleading growl. And the backing vocals are mercifully allowed space to operate.
Reminds you of the good ole days of Three For Love.
The album ends on the frenetic “The Look”, which is built entirely on an absurd slap bass line. No surprise it was co-written by slap bass maestro Stanley Clarke.
ALBUM GRADE: B+
Despite the high grade, you can hear that Shalamar wasn’t really a group anymore so much as three singers recording an album at the behest of the record company.
SONG SCORES
Closer: 8/10
Dead Giveaway: 8.5/10
You Can Count On Me: 2/10
Right Here: 8/10
No Limits (The Now Club): 7/10
Disappearing Act: 7/10
Over and Over: 8.5/10
You’re the One For Me: 6.5/10
You Won't Miss Love (Until It's Gone): 9/10
The Look: 7.5/10