LP Review: Irons In the Fire
Released: 1980
LP Charts: #9 R&B, #38 Pop
Okay, now Lady T fully embraces her groove on Irons in the Fire.
Her debut release was dominated by Rick James. On her sophomore album, Marie took significant control of the writing, but Richard Rudolph oversaw production. Now Teena Marie has written every song* all by herself on this LP, which she produced all by herself as well.
*(okay, she co-wrote “Tune In Tomorrow” but that’s it!)
Total and complete artistic control for Teena Marie! Thank God, cuz this album is great and stayed on the charts longer (42 weeks) than any other of her LPs ever would.
“I Need Your Lovin’” is one of the best (post-)disco songs ever recorded thanks to an infectious bass guitar. The expansive 7:30 track has sweeping strings, fierce but supple background vocals, hooks galore (“M-O-N-E-Y never did a thing for L-O-V-I-N”), and Marie being sassy as fuck (“Is that enough love?”).
Honestly the song reminds me a lot of Chic’s dance tracks. Which is a good thing!
This song easily became her biggest hit yet (#2 Disco, #9 R&B, #37 Pop) as she had her second R&B top 10 and her first pop top 40.
“I Need Your Lovin’” was the hit , but it veers closer to a groove song than a true dance song for me. When it comes to outright dancin’, the top song on this album is “Chains”. It’s a tour de force of clever lyrics, a band that ain’t ready to quit, and guest vocals from Melvin Franklin, bass singer of the Temptations. Once the song’s intro concludes, you’re gonna be out of breath as this disco-funk number extracts significant groove from a salsa beat.
I mean, the final three minutes of the 7:11 song are Marie and the backing singers just singing ad libs about chains of love and you never get tired of it, cuz they’re just propelling your sorry ass to dance more and more.
Also, shout out to the band Ozone for providing the instrumentation on this song as well as “First Class Love” and “Young Love”.
Speaking of those tracks, let’s go on ahead and get to them. “First Class Love” is very good funk jam. It’s the weakest uptempo song on the LP, yet it’s still delightful. A sign of the quality we got going on.
Meanwhile, “Young Love” is too tough. Oh sure it starts out sweet with reminiscences, but the memories turn to torture at the 3:00 mark as the song suddenly turns funky and brassy. Marie demands that her “young love” remember the love they shared and could continue sharing. The demands turn back to sweetness as Marie now begs they give it one more try: “Why you wanna say goodbye? Why you wanna make me cry?”
This song also contains a nice homage to Marvin Gaye’s “Distant Lover”.
Beauty, thy name is “Irons In The Fire”, which was dedicated to Marie’s father. I can’t fully describe the song except to say it is a gentle delight. Great decision by Marie to have a prominent harp, played by Lloyd Lindroth, to give this song its meditative mood.
Okay, remember that strong salsa influence on “Chains”? It’s all over “You Make Love Like Springtime”. An uptempo ballad, this thing might as well be another dance track. In fact, Marie’s vocals, which are quite strong here, really serve as just another part of the instrumental track instead of the instrumental track serving her voice.
The festivities suddenly slow down on “Tune In Tomorrow”, which is Marie’s first successful stab at jazzy R&B. The ballad starts off slow with Motown legend James Jamerson going back to his jazz roots and playing upright bass. Slowly but surely, the song picks up steam as it goes along. By the end it’s in the throes of full-on speakeasy boogie with a jazz guitar playing alongside a scatting Marie. The song smoothly segues into a reprise of “You Make Love Like Springtime” that continues the groove but now with a Spanish guitar going off and with more homages to Marvin Gaye, this time turning the riffs of “Inner City Blues” into a sexy good time.
Honestly, “You Make Love Like Springtime”, “Tune In Tomorrow” and “You Make Love Like Springtime (Reprise)” need to be viewed as one glorious 15-minute suite. They each sound neutered when not beside the other. This is why people make albums.
ALBUM GRADE: A
And that cohesion is why this album merits an A grade. Sure, each individual track is strong, but the cohesion of the songs as a unit is even stronger. Absolutely one of the great R&B albums of the early 1980s.
Song Scores
I Need Your Lovin’: 8.5/10
Young Love: 8.5/10
First Class Love: 7.5/10
Irons In The Fire: 9/10
Chains: 8/10
You Make Love Like Springtime: 8/10
Tune In Tomorrow: 8/10
You Make Love Like Springtime (Reprise): 8.5/10