This 1992 CD from Lil' Louis has to be one of the best dance albums of it's day. Very, very soulful and definitely deserves a place on these pages as do other sets from the House genre, such as Mr. Fingers and Michael Watford amongst many others. Lil' Louis shows a deeper leaning towards soul on this album. You may well recall his huge Clubland hit on FFRR records, "French Kiss" which rode out on the Acid House fad, so if that's all you can recall I bet that you would have seen this album and passed on by. Natural really, but not always the wise thing to do as I learned! This CD contains enough quality uptempo stuff that it served me well over quite a few house parties over Christmas and New Year, 1992, and thankfully these tracks have not dated at all. The track that more conservative ears will hit upon is the KILLER ballad, tucked away near the sunset of the CD.This track will start my critique as most of you will be interested in this one! Imagine the most emotional and heart-wrenching quiet storm number from the early 90s, fashioned with a gorgeous acoustic guitar, very much in the style of a modern day Chic. I nearly died when I heard this song, and I have to say as far as ballads go from dance artists like this, no-one has beaten him yet. No-one. This is a soul cut to die for and even if you ignore all my other choices, I bet you won't be kicking this song out of bed! Lol. "Club Lonely" is my first uptemp choice, a pulsating and quite jazzy house number with pounding bass and sexy vocals from Joi Cardwell, who is still very much active as a singer today. This really is a great 90s dance cut, and even I also love "New Dance Beat". This was written in 1992 and the lyrics are very prophetic as to the state of today's music industry. Lil Louis tries not to sound smug when he says "they used to laugh at me...but I see the future". His list of what is going to go wrong is so spot-one one may believe he engineered it all himself to prove his point! My fave dancer on here is the KILLER "Do U Luv Me" (Below you will hear a posting of this gem!), again featuring Joi Cardwell. A triumph of soulful dance which has stood the test of time! I finish with the deep and epic "Jazzmen" which has a number of tasty solos including Bashiri Johnson on percussion and Mac Gollehon and Reggie Pittman on trumpet. Lovely stuff! Do NOT overlook!
