Originally Posted by
Burble
Big fan of Sports here, even though I don't really ever pull it out and listen to it.
Sports was a really weird album. I was in a college party band, playing keggers and frat parties when it came out, and we did maybe three songs off it and they were sleeper hits at the gigs we did. Lost of people had heard the songs and wanted to hear them, but the band still wasn't a big deal. Maybe half a year later, I started working in a different top-40 club band, and suddenly (I think because of the MTV surge of the time), the same songs were now "new" top-40 hits, and they had a whole new lease on life. I dug it, because they were poppin', hooky tunes, but it was like they got two lives out of that album: the college-station pre-phase, and then the full-blown, rock star top-40 phase.
What trurl said about them singing, too, was a big deal. Huey was off his run with Clover and the Elvis Costello guest spot, and I think he had license from the label to go out and build a band. Making sure that everyone you hire in the band can sing is an underrated tactic. Anyone can cobble together a bunch of vocals in the studio, but being able to go out and run that shit live is a different story. I was watching some ESPN coverage of a Warriors game back then, I think, when they came out and did their "It's Alright to Have a Good Time" thing, and I was totally impressed. It wasn't even a music event; it was just an auxiliary sporting event thing, but it raised my opinion of them considerably.
Plus, Sean Hayes is really a super player. Not groundbreaking or inventive, but really good chops and ALWAYS super tone and could pop in the de rigueur 16-bar solo that was always in place, never too indulgent, and usually not overly simplistic. I think the clip for "Sooner or Later" is in this thread twice already; not a typical solo for him, but really super melodic and well-constructed. For covering the job as a guitar player in a hit-making `80s band, I thought he did a super job.
All told, not my regular style, but a really, really great '80s pop album.
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