Survivin' in the 80's

Album review

After the release of 1982's Livin' in the New Wave, André Cymone wrote and produced four songs that appeared on Evelyn "Champagne" King's Face to Face, including "Teenager," a Top 30 Billboard Black Singles hit. For his second solo album, Cymone put aside his one-man band approach and utilized his touring group. Guitarist Bobby Dean (three songs) and drummer John "Bam Bam" Morgan (two songs), along with keyboardists Craig Thomas, André Cumne, and Linda Rennae (Cymone's sister), all contributed, though electronic gear is so dominant that the material actually sounds more like the work of one or two individuals with occasional background vocals. Even with the assistance from Cymone's stage mates, the album is in line with the mid-'80s trend of producer-oriented synth pop and electronic R&B. Compared to Livin' in the New Wave, the sound of Survivin' in the '80s is rigid and distant, and it doesn't have the same amount of charm. "Make Me Wanna Dance," a decent midtempo number that's not particularly memorable, was Cymone's highest charting single to that point; it scraped the inside of Billboard's Black Singles Top 40. The other single, "Survivin' in the '80s," all choppy synthetic funk, features topical rhymes with references to baggy pants. It failed to chart. Nothing here mixes R&B and rock with as much skill as Cameo's late-1982 "Alligator Woman" or Shalamar's "Dead Giveaway," but there are solid album cuts in the form of "M.O.T.F.," a slinking, mostly instrumental track, and "Stay," a seductive yet aggressive slow jam. Another song features background vocals from Germain Brooks, member of the Girls -- a female trio guided and produced by Cymone that would release an album for Columbia in 1984. That album's "Someone Shoulda Told Me" is one of Cymone's best compositions.
© Andy Kellman /TiVo