Body Talk 03: The 1997 Releases

We've discovered a few posts initially planned for previous themed series here on The Hideaway in our Drafts folder. We've freshened them up and are proud to present them.

Read the first two parts of this series of posts: Part 01 and Part 02. Today, we're reviewing the eight volumes in the Body Talk series initially mailed to subscribers in 1997.

From The Heart is the tenth volume in the Body Talk series and the first issued in 1997. It is nearly flawless for the first sixteen tracks and then stumbles again later. From The Heart is this close to being the first ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rated album in the series but those two songs (Charlene and Debbie Gibson) cost it dearly and From The Heart will have to settle for ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.

The eleventh volume in the Body Talk series is After Dark. It is worth noting that it is the first album in the series to feature two songs from the Nineties (Wilson Phillips and Boy George). After Dark also marks the first of three Body Talk appearances of Heatwave's "Always And Forever" which some folks regard as the best slow jam ever. Some of our favorite songs can be found on After Dark but there just aren't enough of them ⭐⭐⭐.

By Candlelight is the twelfth volume in the Body Talk series. Our favorite slow jam of all time is track three of Disc One, Rose Royce's flirty "I Wanna Get Next To You" but the song is not enough to compensate for an overall weak tracklist featuring less than a handful of our favorite love songs. ⭐⭐⭐.

The one after twelve and before fourteen in the Body Talk series is Just The Two Of Us. Dennis Drake again gets the recording engineer credit so you know the sound is top-notch. We really enjoy most of the songs but after a few listens on a recent sunny weekend we regret that we can only award Just The Two Of Us ⭐⭐⭐⭐.

Love And Tenderness is the fourteenth volume in the Body Talk series and once again Dennis Drake nabs the credit of recording engineer. We count eighteen good to great songs so this should be rated higher than the ⭐⭐⭐⭐ we give it.

The fifteenth volume in the Body Talk series is Once In A Lifetime. Notable for mastering by Dennis Drake and not one not two but three songs from 1990. Unfortunately, none of the three songs are favorites of ours and we only count eleven songs here we even like let alone love so Once In A Lifetime gets ⭐⭐⭐.

Sweet Nothings is sweet sixteen in the Body Talk series. Dennis Drake handled the mastering and there are two 1990 songs from Will To Power and Surface. Despite a few strong songs, it is another weak tracklist for us and we can't give it more than ⭐⭐⭐ and two of those stars are for "Strawberry Letter 23".

The seventeenth volume in the Body Talk series is Heart To Heart. Dennis Drake returns as the mastering engineer and is given fifteen wonderful songs to work with. It's those other not-so-wonderful songs that keep Heart To Heart from rating more than ⭐⭐⭐.

Let us know your album ratings for Body Talk's Class of 1997.

Join us next time as we wrap up the Body Talk saga.