Stanley Clarke. An enormous talent whose style is distinctive, classy as well as being very diverse. I love his jazzy output, his soulful output and his rock output. Some shrunk away from the Virtu album back in 1999 but I loved it! Lol. Anyway, this effort from 1982 is well worth your attention and thanks to the lovely people at Wounded Bird it is available at a reasonable price on CD. If you prefer downloads then iTunes also has it! With 5 tracks on here that I particularly love, for me the best medium has to be CD. This album features a powerfully soulful vocal track at the very top end, "Straight To The Top", and Stanley himself provides all vocals, and some fella called Carlos Santana on guitar! This midtempo groove almost - almost has a Northern beat to it and the vocals, especially the harmonies, sound like a Gerald Alston-led Manhattans! A great, buoyant, tune to get the spirits soaring. The instrumental "Let Me Know You" is quite sexy with it's subtle strings, Fender Rhodes and THAT guitar sound. Brilliant. The killer for me, though is the drop-dead ballad "You Are The One For Me"...if you were won over by quality ballads from the early 80s period such as Rodney Franklin's "Love Is The Answer", Ramsey Lewis' "Midnight Rendezvous" or George Duke's "Stat Awhile" then this track is really for you! Rating as one of the man's best songs, I cannot recommend it enough. More upbeat and jogging along chunkily is "I Just Want To Be Your Brother", and the David Lasley-supported "The Force Of Love" pelts along with a finger-clicking pace along with brassy flourishes and quirky 80s synth stabs. Very of it's time, and some neat drum rolls from Leon 'Ndugu' Chancler and Michael Sembello on guitar make it a memorable track. Classy soulful jazz from 1982.
