{"id":41416,"date":"2009-03-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/suddenly\/"},"modified":"2009-03-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-22T00:00:00","slug":"suddenly","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/suddenly\/","title":{"rendered":"Suddenly"},"content":{"rendered":"

If, like me, you can\u2019t wait for summer to get here, you might want to seek out the Suddenly <\/i>album by Billy Ocean. The #1 dance\/pop hits \u201cCaribbean Queen\u201d and \u201cLoverboy\u201d are both there, as well as the show-stopping ballad title track. It is the only album by Ocean worth owning by far, despite the fact that everything he touched turned to gold back in the \u201880s. Personally, I always found follow-up hits like \u201cWhen The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Gets Going,\u201d \u201cThere\u2019ll Be Sad Songs To Make You Cry\u201d and \u201cGet Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car\u201d ponderously overrated. Thankfully, such long song titles don\u2019t happen as much anymore. Seriously, Billy, WTF?<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The first #1 straight out of the gate was, of course, \u201cCaribbean Queen,\u201d and on Suddenly <\/i>we are treated to the full-length extended dance mix. Over the years, this song has grown on me, and now I am quite fond of it. For a dance track, it\u2019s a mid-tempo cut that has just enough to hold one\u2019s attention. Compared to the stuff that is on the radio these days, it is a quality song that is actually pleasant to the ear. On the other hand, I\u2019ve always loved the dynamically catchy \u201cLoverboy,\u201d which was released around the same time as Teena Marie\u2019s \u201cLovergirl.\u201d Between the two, I\u2019d be hard pressed to choose which one I like better.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Two other songs that I can recommend are \u201cMystery Lady\u201d and \u201cDance Floor.\u201d Unfortunately, the rest of Suddenly <\/i>does fall a little flat. More variation in tempo would have been a nice change of pace, though Adult Contemporary and Black radio probably wouldn\u2019t have changed a thing. It fit in with their formats seamlessly back then, heralding Billy Ocean as a true crossover artist. His sound was for the older generation, so including a cover of the Beatles\u2019 \u201cThe Long And Winding Road\u201d was an appropriate choice.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

While this album is worthy of inclusion in my extensive collection, it isn\u2019t an album I play all that much anymore. Only when I delve back into the history of #1 Billboard<\/i> hits do I feel the need to play \u201cCaribbean Queen\u201d again. It\u2019s just not one of those albums that has a timeless appeal that warrants repeated listens. Even back in the \u201880s, it seemed to have a short shelf life. The material is harmless, but it also leaves you with the feeling of \u201cSo what?\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

To be honest, I was a little surprised to discover that Billy Ocean\u2019s name came up twice <\/i>when I was sifting through the Billboard <\/i>list of #1 Club Play songs. Billy Ocean? Really<\/i>? And this was before the age of remixes, which begs the question what these songs would sound like given the remix treatment. We must have danced a lot slower in those days. Which would make sense\u2026it was the decade of Ronald Reagan, after all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":29804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7047],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-41416","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-billy-ocean","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41416"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41416"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}