Retro Spins: Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam - With Full Force

Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam was a nice eye opener when I first heard their 1987 album, Spanish Fly. It was so good that I immediately set to task to find their 1985 album With Full Force, as well as, their 1989 album, Straight To The Sky. Mind you, I haven't heard either one of these until today when I fired up With Full Force.

Will Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam be able to meet the expectation that Spanish Fly set for me? Well...

I felt like I was being subjected to some poorly written high school play. The spoken dialog between some of the tracks is corny as all get out, and really takes you out of the immersion in the album. Mind you, the songs themselves aren't all that catchy or memorable on their own. However, this additional aspect of trying to create some form of "play" really makes the whole thing silly.

So, no, this album didn't impress me as much as Spanish Fly. Not even close. In fact, I dare say it was pretty bad. Even as I type this, the album continues to drone on in an annoying background noise fashion. I'm not enjoying.

I can say without a shadow of doubt, if this was the first Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam album I ever heard, it would have been the last. It still may very well be the last. It doesn't excite me at all to hear anything further from the group. In fact, it makes me scratch my head in bewilderment how they went from this album to Spanish Fly.

I don't recommend this one...At all.

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Retro Spins: Lisa Lisa And Cult Jam - Spanish Fly

Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam
Spanish Fly
1987

I'm honestly surprised the album Spanish Fly only had two hits from it. The May 1987 entry from Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam wasn't the bands first time to see chart success nor would it be their last. Which is why it's surprising that the band is really only known for two hits - Lost in Emotion and Head to Toe - Both of which charted in 1987.

Head to Toe hit the charts in April of '87 and from there skyrocketed to the number one spot by June. As it worked its way back down the charts, it was met in August by the albums second single, Lost in Emotion. Emotion too went straight to the top, hitting number one in October.

The success of the two tracks didn't help any of the other songs from the album, but rather pushed a prior hit back onto the charts - Someone To Love For Me (for at least one week). However, this is kind of baffling to me as the whole album is one fantastic song after the next - Sort of. There are some duds in there.

In fact, I liked the album so much I quickly looked up their prior and latter albums from the 80's and nabbed them both off of ebay. If the other two play as great as this one did, I'll consider grabbing their final album from 1991. I know, I know - Why not just buy it now and have them all? I have such an aversion to albums from the '90's. For some reason I automatically attribute them to being bad - Regardless of who the artist is.

Initially my IPOD only had two tracks on it, and if you've read this post up until now, you know what they are. However, after listening to it today for Retro Spins, I now have six of the ten tracks in my shuffle, and to give you a little insight, two of the four tracks that didn't make the cut are only (less than a minute) snippets of talking.

This is going to be an album I highly recommend to people who ask me for obscure 80's albums.

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