Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby

great album name, not the biggest fan of it tho

Ugh - must be up there with Simply Red for the worst of 80s excess. Even hair metal was less ridiculous than this.

This is almost impressively boring, given how much energy he seems to put into it. I can't believe this was top of the charts for so long. I don't recognise ANY of these songs, so it goes to show how well it's endured in the culture. As others have said, it doesn't help that the 80's aesthetic is dreadful.

It's really pretty good for what it is. Does that elevate it to 4 stars? It does not.

I give it a 4 because Wishing Well, Dance Little Sister, and Sign Your Name still bring back fond memories of better times (although I got tired of hearing Sign Your Name, as radio stations played it so often—and excessively!).

In fact, there are only two songs, that I can remember, that I can't listen to much anymore (even though I consider them brilliant songs that were huge hits): Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh and I Just Called (To Say I Love You) by Stevie Wonder.

But anyway, in honor of those times, as I said, I give it a 4.

diet mj

I am surprised how much I enjoyed this album. The 80s production is incredibly dated at a few points and some of the songs are incredibly cheesy, but there are also some pretty great tracks on here. In particular, the opening track If You All Get to Heaven and the closing track Who’s Loving You both do the rocking soul thing pretty well. And the singing in As Yet Untitled was phenomenal

Solid album, very much of its time.

At first, I couldn't make sense of the artist's name and the album. I found the album to be mostly mediocre to interesting. However, the song Sign Your Name is really great. That elevates the whole album. 4/5

On first glance, I thought the title said "Introducing the Hairline" and I now refuse to unsee it.

Anyway, I was familiar with a handful of tracks here, not least the opener "If You All Get to Heaven" and "I'll Never Turn My Back On You", but the rest of this was new to me. It's very 80s stylistically and in terms of its production values; chock full of snazzy, funky bass lines and quirky brass instrumentation, and it has that "futurist" vibe of the time largely owing to the synth work, which does date it somewhat, but not to any significantly detrimental effect for me.

The vocals sit on just the right side of my threshold when it comes to soul - a nice light mezzo register, and not too show off-y as D'Arby seems to have a firm handle on what his capabilities are. His vocals don't dominate proceedings, allowing the instrumentation to shine alongside them.

Comparing this to yesterday's offering 3+3, this also felt far more varied in terms of its approach to songwriting - between spacious pop balladeering and more up-tempo cuts, the album avoids blending into one homogenous blob unlike the latter.

I do wonder when I'd sit down and actively reach for this again, but it's an enjoyable listen.

Generic 80s. Made me think of a Temu Michael Jackson. Not worthy of this list.

It was fun listening to "Wishing Well"; brings me back to when it was on the radio at the time.

I thought as an album that it was all kind of samey, and since stuff like this isn't really my favorite genre I ended up skipping halfway through a number of the tracks. I give it a 3 - I'm not about to buy the record, but none of it would cause me to change to a different radio station.

Pretty alright, but a little long.

High 3/5

A derivative, and generally uninteresting album. He sings way too high in the register which makes his voice sound at the breaking point much if the time. Most of the songs sound like bad Michael Jackson/Jackson 5 covers (horn sections and all). The slower ballads also weren't amazing, other than Sign Your Name which is a bop. If he had gone in more of a Sade direction with this I think it'd have been more successful. 2/5

A very good album.

At first I was impressed, despite the horrible 80s-ness of it. Then I started to get a bit bored, but by the end I was sort of impressed again. I think this guy is talented, but it's just not my kind of music and I would never listen to it again.

(4.5) insane guys i love the 80s and im sticking with it

I definitely appreciate the Prince vibes, and he has a wonderful voice. All that said, can't see myself coming back to this one much. Favorite track: Who's Loving You

Wishing Well was what I remember but also solid otherwise

I got sick of this when I was younger as my dad overplayed it in our car.

Listening back to today, whilst the production does sound dated, there was enough to keep me entertained. Cursed nostalgia! 😝