Heatwave - "Central Heating" (1978) - GTO Records
Hello Friends,
Heatwave is a 70's-era disco-funk band that featured a real Benetton ad of a line-up that looked more like a Model UN meeting rather than an on-the-rise boogie band. Their "classic" lineup featured members from Dayton, Ohio, a U.S. Serviceman stationed in Germany, guys from England, Switzerland, Jamaica, Briton & Czechoslovakia.
Central Heating would be the band's second album and probably captures them at their creative peak. (In 1979, founder and lead-singer Johnnie Wilder would be paralyzed in a car accident which would severely limit his ability to perform with the group he founded!)
Overall the sound of the record is pretty middle-of-the-road disco. What's most interesting about the record is probably the fact that there seems to be one or two guys in the band who were more into early Genesis than they were, say, Donna Summer. So you do get some weird, tricked out guitar/keyboard flourishes throughout. (For instance, the fills on the opening track, "Put the Word Out" or the opening arrangement on the title track.)
Side Two's opener, "The Groove Line" was a big hit and probably the album's standout.
The aforementioned title track, unfortunately, sounds like it could be a poorly-produced television ad for a local HVAC company.
"Mind Blowing Decisions", "The Star of the Story" & "Leaving for a Dream" are buttery-smooth ballads with some fine vocal harmonizing making them sound closer to something by The Carpenters, Earth, Wind & Fire or even Steely-Dan-On-Downers! In fact, at times we think this album is closer in sound to a particularly-funky Steely Dan or Bee Gees record rather than some of the grittier stuff being done at the time by The Ohio Players, The Village People or anything by Giorgio Moroder.
FUN FACT: Hey kids, did you know that Heatwave's keyboard-player and main songwriter, Rod Temperton would go on to write some HUGE hits for Michael Jackson like "Off The Wall", "Rock With You" and "Thriller"?
RATING: 3.5 better get your central heating don't get left out in the cold, no use trying to save it for later, got to turn on that old radiator* out of 5
* these are actual lyrics
Heatwave is a 70's-era disco-funk band that featured a real Benetton ad of a line-up that looked more like a Model UN meeting rather than an on-the-rise boogie band. Their "classic" lineup featured members from Dayton, Ohio, a U.S. Serviceman stationed in Germany, guys from England, Switzerland, Jamaica, Briton & Czechoslovakia.
Central Heating would be the band's second album and probably captures them at their creative peak. (In 1979, founder and lead-singer Johnnie Wilder would be paralyzed in a car accident which would severely limit his ability to perform with the group he founded!)
Overall the sound of the record is pretty middle-of-the-road disco. What's most interesting about the record is probably the fact that there seems to be one or two guys in the band who were more into early Genesis than they were, say, Donna Summer. So you do get some weird, tricked out guitar/keyboard flourishes throughout. (For instance, the fills on the opening track, "Put the Word Out" or the opening arrangement on the title track.)
Side Two's opener, "The Groove Line" was a big hit and probably the album's standout.
The aforementioned title track, unfortunately, sounds like it could be a poorly-produced television ad for a local HVAC company.
FUN FACT: Hey kids, did you know that Heatwave's keyboard-player and main songwriter, Rod Temperton would go on to write some HUGE hits for Michael Jackson like "Off The Wall", "Rock With You" and "Thriller"?
RATING: 3.5 better get your central heating don't get left out in the cold, no use trying to save it for later, got to turn on that old radiator* out of 5
* these are actual lyrics
No comments:
Post a Comment