Tim Brough's Black Leather Bookshelf

Finding Their Voices
4 Out Of 5 Stars

After a series of well received critically but commercially successful albums, Daryl Hall and John Oates took matters into their own hands. "Voices" was to be the duo's first effort at self production, figuring if anyone knew what their sound should be like, it was them. It was a gamble that paid off in a big, big way.

Hall and Oates stripped the sound down to an almost new-wave bare-bones structure. Gone where the super-lush soul or the odd Zepplin-esque rock (from "Beauty on a Backstreet") to a sound that could easily be reproduced live. It refocused attention on the always sharp harmonies and Hall's soaring vocals. More than before, Hall was taking center stage, which made an amazing take on Paul Young's "Every Time You Go Away" just before Young had his own hit version.

Showcasing the duo came via touching on the Righteous Brothers "You've Lost That Loving Feeling," one of the four hits "Voices" spun off after a long dry spell. In fact, Hall and Oates struck a writing groove here that continued for almost a decade, as "Voices" knocked off the smashes "Kiss On My List," "How Does It Feel To Be Back" and "You Make My Dreams." Even with a few filler tunes in the middle ("Big Kids," "Africa"), the cream covered any weaknesses.

Hall and Oates effectively reclaimed their career with the album, with followups soon to arrive in the form of "H2O" and "Private Eyes." But it was "Voices" that brought them back to the center stage, and holds up nicely 30 years on.



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Vitamin Water
4 Out of 5 Stars

Hall & Oates were on a roll by 1982's H2O album. "Voices" provided a creative and commercial resurgence, "Private Eyes" may have been their best album to date, and H20 leads off with one of the duo's all time great singles, the Motown inflected "Maneater." They followed that with the seductive, soulful "One On One," and pushed themselves on an arty, edgy cover of Michael Oldfield's "Family Man." The album exudes confidence and hit-making professionalism, and deservedly peaked at number three on its release.

For the most part, is still holds up. The singles are still the strongest things on the album; at this juncture, Hall & Oates had their finger on the magic motherlode of hit crafting. They were also tapping into just enough of the new wave zeitgeist to keep the songs from teetering into pablum, with the tension of "Crime Pays" and the biting "Go Solo" being as strong as any of the hits. But fatigue is beginning to show, with John Oates' "Italian Girls" being too silly for its own good, and both "Guessing Games" and "At Tension" sounding more than a little like filler. As for Hall, never one to sheath his misogynistic streak, "Open All Night" is less than flattering.

But once you tally in the singles, the album's rating tilts up. The re-issue ups the ante by offering the dance mixes of "Maneater" and "Family Man," along with an expanded mix of "One on One." Daryl Hall and John Oates were riding an express that had a couple more great albums in them, and "H20" comes out of a period where their reach was still grasping hold on everything they were aiming for.