Released: 1985
So I kind of tongue-in-cheek lambasted the previous album (Truly For You [C+]) for mimicking Earth, Wind & Fire too much. But at least the Temptations were mimicking some good shit while also adding their own original gem (“Treat Her Like A Lady”).
Touch Me settles for a whole lotta standard R&B tropes from the mid-1980s. Please, I apologize. Go imitate someone good!
Well, they didn’t so we get a song like “Magic”, which is a boring ballad. “Givehersomeattention” is a lot of 80s dance music clutter, but it at least has a funky background. “Deeper Than Love” is horrible generic 80s pop-rock. Richard Street deserved something better for his obligatry vocal feature.
WAIT!
Street got another vocal feature on this album with “I’m Fascinated”? And that song is actually good?! Hot damn! No, but really that song is synthetic 80s music put to use correctly. Instead of using a bunch of whomps and smashes of electronic sounds to replace live instruments, the synth beats create their own spooky world that perfectly fits the song’s ponderous title.
Also, Melvin Franklin comes in to bat clean up, as he often does, with some great bum bum bums on the outro.
We get back into standard/mediocre 80s R&B with “Touch Me”. “Don’t Break Your Promise To Me” meanwhile tries for gospel balladry with 80s instruments. It goes poorly.
What the hell… Street got a third solo on this album? He musta blackmailed someone on the production team. Well, “She Got Tired Of Loving Me” has its moments (thanks to a lively funky band), but its also not that focused, so in the end it flails around awkwardly.
Then we have Luther Vandross dropping in and gifting “Do You Really Love Your Baby”. You could instantly peg this as a Vandross production upon first listen thanks to Marcus Miller’s bass and the post-disco production aesthetics Vandross was enamored with prior to his sad quest to conquer the pop charts in the late 1980s.
“Do You Really Love Your Baby” is legitimately a catchy little ditty, though. Shoulda done better than its #14 R&B showing when it was released as a single.
The album ends in appropriately nondescript fashion with “Oh Lover”.
ALBUM GRADE: D
Yeah, just stick with “I’m Fascinated” and “Do You Really Love Your Baby”. Nothing else here really merits routine listening.
Song Score
Magic: 3/10
Givehersomeattention: 5/10
Deeper Than Love: 2/10
I’m Fascinated: 7/10
Touch Me: 5/10
Don’t Break Your Promise To Me: 3/10
She Got Tired Of Loving Me: 5/10
Do You Really Love Your Baby: 7/10
Oh Lover: 5/10