Starting in the late ’70s and continuing for the better part of a decade, the duo of Daryl Hall and John Oates pretty much dominated AOR radio and the charts. Songs like “Kiss On My List,” “Private Eyes” and “Out Of Touch” still get regular airplay on the classic rock stations.<\/p>\n
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But every artist or group has to get their start somewhere, and sometimes that start isn’t pretty. Whole Oats<\/i>, the 1972 debut from Hall & Oates, is exhibit “A” today. A collection of 11 songs bereft of hits or even energy, this one illustrates why certain albums should be allowed to go out of print.<\/p>\n
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Diehard fans are probably reading this and shouting at their screens, “You dummy, you can’t compare a debut effort to the hits!” Well, you’re right… and I’m not doing that. I approached this one as its own unique creation, and did my best to block out everything Hall & Oates that has been part of my life since I was about nine. We are, then, simply left with this album.<\/p>\n
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The problem with this one is that it lacks any solid direction the music is supposed to be going in. It’s not Philly soul by any means; if anything, songs like “Lazyman,” “Waterwheel” and “I’m Sorry” almost feel like a poor man’s John Denver, oozing a folky sound but no real ambition to take the songs anywhere. They fall flat musically, they fall flat lyrically, and they fall flat vocally. Three strikes, kid…<\/p>\n
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And then, there’s “Georgie”. Look, there are hundreds of songs out there documenting forbidden love that takes a tragic turn. But… Jesus Christ… this<\/i> one is dark and insipid. I’d say you have to hear this one to understand, but that’s an evil I wouldn’t wish on anyone.<\/p>\n
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The thing is, there were some sparks of hope on Whole Oats<\/i> – faint, but they were there. “Goodnight And Goodmorning,” the only single released (which made no impact on the Billboard<\/i> charts) does have a solid musical backbone to it, even if it’s laissez-faire delivery weakens it a bit. It was the first real sign that Hall & Oates had something to stake their careers on. Had there been more songs like this, it honestly would have been a better album.<\/p>\n
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It’s not that dipping into acoustic-driven ballads was necessarily a bad thing for them. It’s that there needed to be some faith in what they were performing to seal the deal between musicians and listeners. But tracks like “They Needed Each Other” just don’t offer the listener anything solid to grab onto, and make them want to hear more of the album in a way like “Goodnight And Goodmorning” successfully did.<\/p>\n
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Maybe the pseudo-folk avenue is what Hall & Oates were honestly going for on Whole Oats<\/i> – and, if that’s the case, that’s fine. The problem, then, is that the music doesn’t hook the listener in the way it needed to. For every “Southeast City Window” (which is, honestly, one of the better efforts) and “Lilly (Are You Happy)”, there are songs like “All Our Love” that undo any goodwill created. And, in the ends, that’s what dooms this disc. It’s difficult trodding through the treacle to get to the three songs that actually have some meat on the bone.<\/p>\n
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Is there material on Whole Oats<\/i> to like? Honestly, yes… but not nearly enough to save the album as a whole. Whole Oats<\/i> ends up being more of a first stumble than a first step, and even the good tracks don’t hold enough power to suggest this one is worth more than adding to a collection if you’re a completist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7473],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-47236","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-daryl-hall-john-oates","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47236","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/47236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=47236"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=47236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}