Affection is Lisa Stansfield’s debut album as a solist and it’s dated 1990 (1989 in the UK); after the previous experience with the Blue zone and Coldcut most voted as Pop, with this album the british singer is orientated definetely towards Soul and Rhythm and blues, genre with which she grew up listening to Diana Ross, Supremes, other myths from Motown, but most of all Barry White her true inspiration. All of the texts are written by her in collaboration with Ian Devaney and Andy Morris already her adventure fellows within Blue zone those which play the majority of the instruments (all except the strings and sax).
The album opens with This is the right time a track quite rhythmical and a strong bass and good keyboard base in which Lisa shows great a refined musical talent. The second track Mighty love continues with the most important bass that is accompanied by a piano and strings very refined and easy listening, Lisa’s vocal part brings to mind at times Chaka Kahn. Sincerity is a very elegant R&B con great follow-ups, meanwhile The love in me results well supported by a great section of wind instruments, it posseses and urban atmosphere and a demonstrates the extraordinary vocal tantelt of Lisa that goes from important tones to acute without apparent fatigue. Track 5 is surely her most famous is all time, we mean All around the world an extraordinary song which lead her to world success and it classified in the top 100 american billboard charts as best song of all time; number 1 in the UK, number 3 in the USA and number 1 R&B USA (a rare fact for a non black artist) has a base is strings which makes it very elegant and owns a very strong groove, it was a must even in discoteques.
Followed by What did I do to you? Even this one suited to be a ballad, and then Live together, at my own personal judgement is the best part of the album, very refined, it creates an incredible soul atmosphere, beautiful even the begining in which Lisa speaks with a strong tone as her professor Barry White. Afterwards we can find You can deny it another USA hit built with strong bass, xylofone and trumpet completed by another Stansfield’s vocal talent. The album continues with Poison, a quite danceable track, with slapping bass and great wind instruments, we againg find tracks spoken in Barry White’s style. When are you coming back? closed the vinyl edition (holding only 10 tracks), other song with very refined atmosphere made by great chorus and strings. Then we can find Affection (title track) that demostrates great soul and reminds Barry White’s best moments. Number 12, Wake up baby, is a pure Soul track, meanwhile track 13 The way you want it, a track in Pop style, rapped up the album in a descrete but in a dull way.
Generally the disc is a concentration of talent and not only the hit tracks: we mean a mix of Soul, Pop and R&B, one of the best albums of the 90’s (within the top 5) with innovative and interesting keyboards, rhythm and bass extremely well played, in addition the strings and wind instruments, present almost everywhere, make it altogether an extraordinary elegance. Lisa’s strong voice, is at the same time sweet and warm, other times becomes scratchy and masculine particular acute. Even someone who isn’t a Lisa Stansfield fan, should have this album in their own collection and it’s not possible to compare to the R&B artists of today. We can only criticize the drums, a bit cold and too electrical: acoustical drums would have made the whole album warmer and more harmonious, but it’s the only small weak point to an otherwise perfect work.
What did I do to you? EP includes, in the beginning, three other tracks not included in Affection: My apple heart, Lay me down and Something's happenin'. We can find those songs in the 2003 digipak edition of the same album in the The complete collection case. In addition, in the 2003 re-edition, we find the classical People hold on (single mix version), or yet the realized hit in collaboration with Coldcut that sent Lisa in the music Olympus.
Singles extracted from album
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This is the right time
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All around the world
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Live together
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What did I do to you?
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You can't deny it
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Videoclips
- This is the right time (EU/USA version)
- All around the world
- Live together
- What did I do to you?
- You can't deny it
For more information on the history of videoclips visit the appropriate section.
