This album is from 1979, so it predates Dollar’s commercial synth-pop zenith, the era when Trevor Horn took the production and songwriting by the lapels and gave them a good shake. Here, Christopher Neil sits in the producer’s chair and, to be fair, he does a tidy job. Solina strings and Minimoog noodling are blended with acoustic drums and disco-tinged bass guitar. The sound isn’t the issue. The problem is the songs, which too often feel like they turned up to the session, signed in, and then asked if they could leave early.
The strangely monotone title track is a good example of what’s going wrong. I’m fairly sure there’s a chord change in there somewhere, but it’s hardly Steely Dan. Still, it must have had some appeal as it broke the Top 20 in the UK. It’s just that I can’t hear it, and I’ve tried, in the way you try to enjoy a colleague’s holiday photos. The Vocoder on “Star Control” is fun and faintly reminiscent of ELO, but at six minutes it outstays its welcome by a good three minutes and a small apology.
On the flip side, “Who Were You with in the Moonlight” has a decent chorus, which is handy because the verses do their best to take the air out of the room. There’s some really nice slap bass popping up here and there, but the production is otherwise fairly traditional, like it’s wearing sensible shoes and calling it a night at half ten.
The big single here was “Love’s Got a Hold on Me”, which sounds like it absorbed more than a bit of the Bee Gees along the way and then refused to give it back. There are some nice synth tones woven into its middle-of-the-road exterior, but it never quite escapes the beige, and this one definitely isn’t for me. Another Top 10 hit from the record is a cover of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”. I’m a fan of covers that reframe a well-known song and add a bit of the artist’s personality, rather than simply photocopying the original and hoping nobody notices. There’s no doubt this track achieves that, and it’s one of the few moments where the album feels properly alive.
The rest of the tracklist mostly just occupies space. It’s hard to mount a serious defence for things like “Love Street”, or the full-on horrors of “I Need Your Love”. If you’re Dollar-curious, the hits will give you the gist. As for the album as a whole, let’s call it a fascinating artefact, best enjoyed at arm’s length, preferably from the other side of the charity-shop counter. Not so much a guilty pleasure, more a guilty purchase, the kind you justify on the walk home and quietly consider re-donating a week later. 1.5/5
