Customer Reviews

All This Love

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was a great album. While it wasn't their biggest, it was the one that made them famous, and contains two of their biggest hits. "All This Love" and "I Like It" stand as pop-soul classics, while the first single, "Stop! Don't Tease Me" is punchy and sexy, and should have done better than it did. This record was peppered with snappy uptempo numbers and tender ballads, giving it a good balance. Nolen and Crossley's "Can't Stop" (made popular on "Motown 25"), is early 80s dance pop at its best, while Bunny offers up two great compositions in "It's Getting Stronger" and "Life begins With You," while Mark's "I'm In Love With You" is a fitting album closer. Even with the somewhat inflated import price, this is still worth picking up since it has been out of print for years in the States.

DeBarge is one of my personal favorite groups. I love the songs in the album, "I'm in Love With You", "It's Getting Stronger" and "Can't Stop". I think some of their song were really overlooked and not listened to well enough to be put on their greatest hits even though they have their famous greatest hits all compiled on the Ultimate Collection. I really loved listening to their songs as a young boy at 4 and 5. I'm 21 now and still listening this great album. It's excellent. I recommend it. If you like DeBarge, you will not be disappointed in adding this album to your DeBarge collection.

Since AMAZON did not provide a track listing, here it is:

1. I'LL NEVER FALL IN LOVE AGAIN
2. STOP! DON'T TEASE ME
3. I LIKE IT
4. CAN'T STOP
5. ALL THIS LOVE
6. IT'S GETTING STRONGER
7. LIFE BEGINS WITH YOU
8. I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU

Who doesn't remember "I Like It" and "All This Love" growing up?!?! 2 GREAT songs!

I have this on Tape still&always dug the Catchy "Can't Stop".but the Greatness of El Debarge is Displayed here on "all this Love&"I Like It". I still say that while El Debarge Made Better solo Albums he made Better songs with Debarge&these Two Songs are KnockOuts.El is One of those Cats that I Hope gets another Run in the Game because he is a Very Talented Brother.very Deep Songwriter&vocalist.Bunny sounds good on here as well.

Honestly it was songs from this album that first made me aware of DeBarge's existence. Of course my own existence had just began so I had no way of realizing I was in the same boat as most people. While I'm pretty sure the families debut The DeBarges made those who bought it very happy,this album got a lot more attention for the band. And even if it didn't break them out all the way yet it contained enough hit singles and was distinctive enough in quality that a lot of people,including myself until several years ago believed it to be the bands debut album. And in a way it was. They dropped the "the" from their name and added brother James,soon to be the groom for Miss Janet Jackson (for a short time) so they were a bit different. Not only that but it was clear on this album that El DeBarge was going to emerge as a significant front man for the group. Also their sound was beginning to become even more fully formed than before.

On thing that makes this album shine so bright is that it starts out with two strong funk tunes. "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" and "Stop!Don't Tease Me" both graft thick basslines with punchy synthesizers for a Motown style melodic soul take on Prince's Minneapolis funk sound. At the same time that sense of Motown sophistication is always there. The albums two other primary uptempo tunes "Can't Stop" and "It's Getting Stronger" are both fuller,more rhythmic numbers but still in keeping with the urban dance-funk ethic of that time. Of course the hits are two of the strongest numbers on the album. There's of the course the sexy midtempo groove of "I Like It",a melodic sophistifunk treat with some of the hottest harmonies Debarge ever put to record. The title song of course is one of their most intricately chorded and crafted ballads. Not to take anything away from Bunny's beautiful "Life Begins With You" either. And of course there's my personal favorite in the closing "I'm In Love With You",a wonderfully written and breezy jazzy-funk type number with some tasty Caribbean style percussion licks (which would return to DeBarge's sound in years to come) and some chord changes and basslines not unlike what Stevie Wonder might've come up with in this period.

From beginning to end this is one of the most cohesive and exciting to come out of the Motown camp during this era. While the label was on the heels of it's famed 25'th anniversary during this time,they didn't really have a lot of acts that celebrated their mixture of diverse rhythmic grooves and creamy harmonies and melodies that made them what they were in their heyday. While as carefully groomed for success as any Motown act DeBarge came at their sound with their creative instincts fully intact. And since they were inspired by the sounds of classic Motown they had the potential to revitalize a sort of 80's version of the label's classic sound,especially with the urban jazz/pop-funk influences they seemed to carry since it was jazz musicians that made Motown's original house band what it was. It didn't quite happen that way. But with it's melodically and often rhythmically surprising pop/R&B sound (as well as it's vocal and instrumental sense of understatement) this family group had by this album created (and were poised for yet more) great things.

The DeBarge family are a favorite of mine. Their music comes from the soul.

Probably the most thoroughly listenable DeBarge album, this one has the beautiful hits "All This Love" and "I Like It", plus the catchy, infectious, uptempo groover "Can't Stop", and the beautifully melodic "I'm In Love With You." If various family members hadn't started getting into trouble in the ensuing years, the DeBarge family might have had a much lengthier career than it did. They were certainly talented enough.

First, I do agree with the previous reviewer: It does have its share of 80s classics. Great album if you're in that sort of cheesy R&B vibe.

Second, it's a great source for classic hip-hop sampling: this is one of the so-called "gold-digging" albums that you'll listen to and recognize at least a handful of tracks that legendary Hip Hop Djs used back in the day to lace their SP-1200 productions with.