Are you ready to reassess Hall & Oates?

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Abandoned Luncheonette is one of the greatest albums of all time. Incredible musicianship, real emotional depth that they admittedly lost a little later in their career, and every song a belter.

Now 10cc and Supertramp have become critically acceptable once more, surely it's the turn of Hall & Oates next.

― Christopher Cross, Thursday, 19 April 2007 21:13 (eighteen years ago)

Hall & Oates have their moments, but are they really that hated by the critics?

Plus 10cc and Supertramp were better anyway ;)

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 19 April 2007 21:15 (eighteen years ago)

Not ready.

― Rich Smörgasbord, Thursday, 19 April 2007 21:22 (eighteen years ago)

There's already a fair amount of appreciation for them around these parts:

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=24248

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 19 April 2007 21:24 (eighteen years ago)

baby everybody around here loves h&o

― gff, Thursday, 19 April 2007 21:26 (eighteen years ago)

(And lots of people are agreeing with one another on that thread who ordinarily don't overlap too much.)

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 19 April 2007 21:26 (eighteen years ago)

"She's Gone" is Top 50 songs of all time material.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Thursday, 19 April 2007 21:37 (eighteen years ago)

Absolutely.

― Rockist Scientist, Thursday, 19 April 2007 22:25 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know them that well but "Family Man" is totally great avant-pop, almost like a commercial Eno or something.

― Sundar, Thursday, 19 April 2007 22:30 (eighteen years ago)

better question,and a rhyming one, natch:

are we ready to reassess their fashion sense?

― The Macallan 18 Year, Thursday, 19 April 2007 22:43 (eighteen years ago)

"Everytime You Go Away" is a great song. And, btw, Paul Young's version worked too, although the better version would have been a version with the original melody, as sung by Daryl Hall in the exact same way, on top of Laurie Latham's great 1985 arrangement for Paul Young.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 19 April 2007 23:07 (eighteen years ago)

I know we've done this (I've started a few of these), but I rep for album tracks like "Open All Night," "Big Kids," and "Cold, Dark, and Yesterday."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 20 April 2007 00:22 (eighteen years ago)

im listening to war babies RIGHT NOW

― chaki, Friday, 20 April 2007 00:23 (eighteen years ago)

So glad to hear everyone likes H&O, what fine taste around here! Risking political incorrectness, don't they somehow seem the "blackest" of blue-eyed soulsters?

― iago g., Friday, 20 April 2007 00:49 (eighteen years ago)

Racist!!!

― Tinky-Winky, Friday, 20 April 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

nappy headed bros:

http://www.hallandoates.org/Hall_Oates.jpg

― The Macallan 18 Year, Friday, 20 April 2007 17:36 (eighteen years ago)

I always liked 'Maneater'. And most of anything else on that American Heartbeat compilation LP my aunt played incessantly in the mid-80s.

― MacDara, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:17 (eighteen years ago)

I don't know them that well but "Family Man" is totally great avant-pop, almost like a commercial Eno or something.

that's because it was written by Mike Oldfield!

― jaxon, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:27 (eighteen years ago)

H20 and Private Eyes are stone cold classics.

― jaxon, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:29 (eighteen years ago)

"re asses"

― forksclovetofu, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:31 (eighteen years ago)

For the record, they have at least seven songs I'll fight and die for.
That's about it tho'.

― forksclovetofu, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:32 (eighteen years ago)

I burned the War Babies LP for some friends a while back. Struck me as OK, sort of avant-Philly but somehow shrill like a lot of Todd Rundgren--didn't he produce that one? "Sara Smile" and "She's Gone" are classics and "everybody's high on consolation" a definitive '70s line.

I really kind of puke when I hear their later soul overkill records, though. I'm not about to worry about whether that shit is "good" or not. Nice enough hits at the time but no, they have not stood up well at all, and that's about as much re-ass as I want to do on them.

― whisperineddhurt, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:43 (eighteen years ago)

Don't so much puke over the 80s stuff myself, but definitely agree about most of it not holding up that well. The exception is "One on One."

― sw00ds, Friday, 20 April 2007 20:48 (eighteen years ago)

go to wolfgang's vault.

find hall & oates 4/23/82 in baltimore.

listen to "kiss on my list."

reassess your life.

― fact checking cuz, Friday, 20 April 2007 21:09 (eighteen years ago)

No "soul overkill" here. Or, I mean, maybe on a few occasions, but as late as 1984 they were still able to come up with such a great powerpop single as "Out Of Touch".

― Geir Hongro, Friday, 20 April 2007 22:09 (eighteen years ago)

Hahah..."Christopher Cross" is starting a thread about Hall & Oates. That makes me laugh. Seriously, I'm well up for reevaluating H&O. I read a thing in Mojo about one particularly strange album they did in the early 70's...Abandoned Luncheonette might be it. I wanted to give that a listen, whatever it was. I'll have to dig out that Mojo.

― Bimble, Saturday, 21 April 2007 02:30 (eighteen years ago)

No, I just found it. It was "War Babies". That was the name of the album this article was about.

― Bimble, Saturday, 21 April 2007 02:33 (eighteen years ago)

I feel like everyone I know reassessed Hall & Oates within the last five years and now they seem universally liked in my circle.

― Hurting 2, Saturday, 21 April 2007 02:37 (eighteen years ago)

H20 is so good

― billstevejim, Saturday, 21 April 2007 02:48 (eighteen years ago)

finally got Sacred Songs. It's really good.

― dan selzer, Saturday, 21 April 2007 04:23 (eighteen years ago)

"Everything Your Heart Desires"!

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Saturday, 21 April 2007 04:24 (eighteen years ago)

War Babies surely deserves "lost classic" status, even if it is really a Todd Rundgren LP in disguise...

Hall & Oates' music holds up much better than their videos...neither one of them ever really figured out what to do with their shoulders...

― henry s, Saturday, 21 April 2007 15:36 (eighteen years ago)

Darryl Hall looked good untill the mega-mullett took over.

― dan selzer, Saturday, 21 April 2007 16:18 (eighteen years ago)

ILX: Are you ready to reassess Christopher Cross?

;)

― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 21 April 2007 17:47 (eighteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

War Babies is sounding really good so far, and interesting.

― Bimble, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 04:54 (eighteen years ago)

Also the other day I heard "One on One" in a restaurant and just about flipped out of my chair. I hadn't heard that since it came out and I remembered that I bought that single back in the day. I confess I had completely forgotten about that song. Adult Education is another one I completely forgot about. I don't even remember how that goes.

― Bimble, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 04:56 (eighteen years ago)

"Adult Education" is the one that sounds a bit like Chic; it's also got the Indiana Jones-inspired video.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 13:04 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, I think I mentioned on that other H&O thread how ILM indoctrination persuaded me to buy that 2CD comp, and then being pleasantly shocked at the number of quality songs that I'd forgotten - or didn't realize I knew in the first place.

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Wednesday, 16 May 2007 14:59 (eighteen years ago)

two years pass...

Billboard: Hipsters or something love H&O

― The Magnificent Colin Firth (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 March 2010 14:54 (fifteen years ago)

hipsters are the only thing stopping the world of music being unbearably bleak, they're like sunlight

― ogmor, Friday, 12 March 2010 15:15 (fifteen years ago)

ILX: Are you ready to reassess Christopher Cross?

;)
― Geir Hongro, Saturday, April 21, 2007 12:47 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^ best geir joke

― we call him gabb Neb coz he's gabb & his names Nebille (Curt1s Stephens), Friday, 12 March 2010 15:16 (fifteen years ago)

hey, that billboard article is pretty good. everybody should read it.

― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 12 March 2010 19:58 (fifteen years ago)

i learnt its still safe to diss Thompson Twins in it

― neurological bandwidth doctor (Hunt3r), Friday, 12 March 2010 20:17 (fifteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZgwW3zPvow

fuckers. this rules ^

― Jamie_ATP, Saturday, 13 March 2010 10:12 (fifteen years ago)

Thompson Twins were amazing. Surely about time they are being rehabilitated, and it will happen in time.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Saturday, 13 March 2010 14:52 (fifteen years ago)

oi, hall & oates, are you serious? 'aven't forgiven 'em for "change of season", broke my 'eart with that one...that album was fookin' Abraham Lincoln...and they let BON JOVI co-write a track? unreal, if i saw hall or oates today id walk up to them with a crock pot full of faeces and say this is an even trade for what you did to my ears in 1990.

― Sexplosion!, Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:10 (fifteen years ago)

In the box set liner notes, Daryl Hall makes it clear that their label forced them to work with Bon Jovi (and they've played the non-Bon Jovi version of "So Close" for years now).

― The Magnificent Colin Firth (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 13 March 2010 15:51 (fifteen years ago)

oi, hall & oates, are you serious? 'aven't forgiven 'em for "change of season", broke my 'eart with that one...that album was fookin' Abraham Lincoln...and they let BON JOVI co-write a track? unreal, if i saw hall or oates today id walk up to them with a crock pot full of faeces and say this is an even trade for what you did to my ears in 1990.

I seriously haven't paid much attention to anything they did after the mid 80s. They were often great before that thoug.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Saturday, 13 March 2010 19:25 (fifteen years ago)

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