Chico DeBarge | Kiss Serious


I figured since I see my other players jump on board with such riveting, nicely suggested reviews for the Back In the Day page, I better hop in, go into my collections & pull some stuff out for consideration.

Back in 1987 on Motown Records, Chico DeBarge released Kiss Serious, a not so bad offering considering who came with him to produce some acceptable R&B tracks. One of them was a fella named Brownmark. Do you guys remember this cat? Anyhow, Chico had almost everything going for him at the time, even today. The looks, the family connection to DeBarge & a light edge to a pop oriented sound of R&B. His 1st break "Talk To Me" was infectious, straight R&B classic of the 80's. But his sophomore release wasn't that bad at all.

Track Listing:
~ I've Been Watching You
~ Don't Move So Fast
~ Will You Be Mine
~ Kiss Serious
~ Rainy Nights
~ Love Addiction
~ Let's Hook It Up
~ After Hours
~ One Track Heart
~ Shame, Shame



Brownmark should lay claim to a lot of head groovin' compositions on "Kiss Serious". From where a lot of sound came directly from the Minneapolis spectrum. We are talking about his involvement with Prince & The Revolution & his founding group Mazarati. Now Mazarati's album was tight! And some of those productions found its way onto 4 of the total 10 tracks listed on the album. From "I've Been Watching You", "Don't Move So Fast", "Will You Be Mine" to "Shame, Shame", Brownmark's finishing touches are quite evident in the bass guitar leads & overall head noddin' beats. Chico flowed effortlessly with each track.

Vincent Brantley had his hand on "Love Addiction" & "Let's Hook It Up" but Skip Drinkwater produced a solid jam right into "After Hours" (video box above). Jazz great Jeff Lorber lent a solo hand into the Keyboards and after you hear it, you'll probably dig it too. "One Track Heart" produced by Jeff Silverman & Steve Diamond fell right into place alongside the Brownmark & Mr. Brantley contributions.

There's many other projects that followed well after this LP, much more on a neo-soul tip & with more maturity in his singing career. It was great to pull this deal out & spin it back for review. Despite any personal issues that came after the release of "Kiss Serious", Chico is back on track with the new 2009 release of "Addiction".

Terrill Hanna
The Urban Music Scene

Posted by Administration at 11/15/2009 10:52 AM
Categories: Rhythm and Blues, Videos
 

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