K.C. & The Sunshine Band - Oh Yeah (93)

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1 Megamix : That's the Way/Shake Your Booty/Get Do [The Official Bootleg: I'm Yo]
2 Somebody Somewhere (I'll Be There)
3 Will You Love Me in the Morning
4 Hold Me Tight
5 Give It Up
6 Please Don't Go [Live in Versilia]
7 Coast to Coast
8 I Can't Forget
9 Gonna Let It Go
10 Don't Stop
11 Turn the Music Up
12 Desire
13 High Above the Clouds

The Bee Gees may have been the undisputed disco kings of the late '70s, but KC & the Sunshine Band weren't far behind.

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From the mid- to late '70s, the multi-member and racially integrated group led by bandleaders Harry Wayne "KC" Casey and Richard Finch racked up some of the era's biggest and instantly recognizable dance hits.

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Casey and Finch first met in 1972 while both were employed by TK Records in Miami, FL, where among other chores, Casey served as a personal secretary and booking agent for artist Timmy Thomas.

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KC & the Sunshine Band officially formed in 1973, but a debut single, "Blow Your Whistle," sunk from sight upon release. But it was another Casey/Finch original, "Rock Your Baby," that R&B artist George McCrae scored a hit with in 1974 as KC & the Sunshine Band began issuing further albums and singles, quickly scoring big hits on their own.

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The group then began an impressive run of disco hits: 1977's "Shake Shake Shake (Shake Your Booty)," "I'm Your Boogieman," "Keep It Comin' Love," "Boogie Shoes" (the latter included on the monster-selling soundtrack to the hit John Travolta disco movie, Saturday Night Fever), 1979's "Do You Wanna Go Party," and 1980's "Please Don't Go."

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Despite earning nine Grammy nominations (receiving three awards) and selling millions of records, KC & the Sunshine Band were still susceptible to the backlash that disco bands felt by the dawn of the '80s, eventually leading to dwindling sales and the group's split by the early '80s (although KC scored a moderate solo hit in 1983 with "Give It Up").

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Come the '90s, an appreciation of everything '70s swept across the U.S., which led to a renewed interest bands from the era, prompting KC & the Sunshine Band to re-form for concert performances.

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That decade saw the release of countless KC "hits" collections and even an episode of VH1's popular Behind the Music series that studied the group's ups and downs.
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Erasure - I Say I Say I Say (94)

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1 Take Me Back
2 I Love Saturday
3 Man in the Moon
4 So the Story Goes
5 Run to the Sun
6 Always
7 All Through the Years
8 Blues Away
9 Miracle
10 Because You're So Sweet

Released three years after Chorus, I Say I Say I Say found Erasure for the first time fully interested in essentially staying in place.

The album as a whole is at base an attractively redressed version of what the duo had already done, the occasional slight surprise notwithstanding.

While Clarke in particular shows some virtuosity with his performances, helped by Human League/Heaven 17 veteran Martyn Ware's production, I Say lacks any real novelty (certainly Bell's singing isn't going to change any earlier perceptions, positive or negative).

It's not as experimentally indulgent as the self-titled album or unfortunately unmemorable as Cowboy, but it's still not quite the group at its sharp pop finest track for track.

When it does succeed, though, it has plenty of the flash and verve of old.

"Always," the wonderful ballad that was the album's lead single, with a slightly quirky opening, strong verses both musically and lyrically, and a flat-out brilliant chorus, Bell's impassioned delivery one of his finest moments.

I Say's lead-off one/two combination is also a winner; "Take Me Back" also plays the sweeping, slow card effectively, Bell in particular getting in some fine singing.

"I Love Saturday," meanwhile, neatly balances pepped up energy on Clarke's part with a lower-key delivery from Bell, a striking combination that makes for a better result than the strident, full-on pep of "Run to the Sun."

Other winners include "Man in the Moon," which has a delightful chorus with a sweetly silly pipe/synth melody, "So the Story Goes," and "Miracle," the last two of which feature the singing of a cathedral choir.

It's a nice look ahead to the reach of the self-titled record, though, with more pop-friendly song lengths and two of Bell's best, strongest performances on the album.