Customer Reviews

Love Attack

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

 

 

Isaac Hayes' album recording output during the 1980s after 1981's uneven "Lifetime Thing" was rather minimal and substandard. Apparently personal issues and other professional endeavors took priority over making records, and it shows somewhat on this 1988 Columbia Records release. Hayes made two transitional albums for Columbia in the mid to late 80s (this one and "U-Turn" in 1986), and for longtime fans neither lived up to all the expectation and hype prior to their release. However, Isaac Hayes has never released a bad album, and "Love Attack" is not without its moments. Thankfully there's classic and typical Hayes the balladeer and songster present - such as the sultry and seducing "Eye Of The Storm". Even the early two club/dance oriented tracks "Love Attack" and "Showdown" (a minor hit which received some radio & club play) manage to work for southern `soul man' Hayes trying to get his 'groove back' in the late 80s. Ike's raps on record are legendary and stirring, but the rap infected "Let Me Be Your Everything" is an obvious attempt to be hip and just doesn't hit on all cylinders. The last half of the album consists of more keyboard/drum programming and the 'same ole same ole', with Isaac rapping as an intro to his own low-budget updated remake of "I Stand Accused", putting his Black Moses stamp on Major Harris' classic "Love Won't Let Me Wait" (with another pre-song rap) and tastefully delivering a very personalized, soulful and tender reading of Billy Joel's "She's Got A Way". Although "Love Attack" is not showcasing Isaac Hayes in all his glory, it does play out nicely as a link from the Polydor Records era to the two stellar albums he released on Virgin Records ("Branded"/"Raw & Refined") in the mid nineties and hint at the musical "Chef" to come later.

i just got my copy of this album....kudos to Isaac for puttin' it down...the synths,.totally 80's. "Showdown" is the jam! really diggin' it. "Love Attack" is cool too. if you're a Isaac Hayes collector you got to get this one. :)

Trust me, I love's Isaac Hayes' songs from the '70s but I remembered when this album came out in 1988 and when Showdown was the first single. Showdown had the funkiest, rollicking groove, and the cold-as-ice rap that could rival any of LL Cool J's own '80s songs! Had the boasting of most hip-hop too! The album version is about 6 minutes, longer than the 4 that was for the radio version. When the radio announcer said it was Isaac Hayes, I went, Isaac's got a new album out?! But I heard the album a few years later and it was a solid musical effort. It clashes the soul of his best '70s work with the trendy urban grooves of the '80s in one album. A few times closest to hip-hop. Again, Isaac makes the smoothest ballads here. He sticks to what made him a major star with his rhythm sections and solid songwriting here. The other uptempo numbers are just as funky as Showdown. This is really one of his best post-Shaft period albums and just as strong as his ultra funky late-70s hit Zeke the Freak. Please get this superb Isaac Hayes album too.

In the late 1990's is when I purchased this CD. At that time I bought it in a cassette format. I played it to death. It is just no words to express how much I love Isaac Hayes music. This tape was with me, at a very bad time in my life. But I will tell you, It was right on time. So sincere, and so amusing and so laid back and just a over all well put together piece of art of great music. That is what Isaac is a Man of sincere greatness when it came to his music. How can anyone not like his type of real quaity style of music. I don't know how to write in words about such a great man of Music. I do know my Hats off to Amazon.Com. Because I have been looking for this CD, now for 12-1/2 years, and I could not find it no where. It is very hard to find 'Isaac Hayes' music of the past as it is. However I was so proud the search was over. And this is indeed a great CD. I would recommend this CD to everybody that likes Isaac Hayes. I miss this Brother real Bad. I got a chance to meet him years ago, and I never will forget him as long as I live. As I have said always. Soon we will all be done with the troubles of this world. It was a super sad day for me, when my wife came and told me Isaac Hayes has died. I know God knows his business, but it hit me from the blind side, and left me in shock for many long hours and a few days. God Rest his soul. Sometimes I just do not understand life at all....RIP Bro Isaac!

More than a decade and a half after the days of "Shaft" and "Hot Buttered Soul", this was supposed to be a comeback album for Isaac Hayes. After hearing it just once, it's hard to believe that he could have ever made a bad album. Possessing one of those rare voices that just doesn't sound like anybody else in the world, he uses it in a number of amazing ways, running from warm and tender on the brilliant ballad "Eye Of The Storm," to cold and menacing on the pumping jam "Showdown." He also tears up Billy Joel's "She's Got A Way" so brilliantly that those who don't know about BJ would probably be greatly surprised to discover that it was a pop song before Isaac Hayes made it into a soul ballad, and/or that Isaac Hayes wasn't the first person to make the song. The "Hot Buttered Soul" purists might not be convinced, but anyone who's a serious collector of Isaac Hayes music should most definitely have this album.

While by no means among Isaac's most ambitious or memorable albums, "Love Attack" does have its moments. His cover version of Major Harris' 1975 hit "Love Won't Let Me Wait" is a great throwback to his early-'70s Stax works--and earns points just for trying. His remake of Billy Joel's "She's Got A Way" is respectable if innovative while "Eye Of The Storm" and "Let Me Be Your Everything" vare quite intersting. The other tracks, unfortunately, are veasily forgettable. All in all, "Love Attack" has its strengths and moments but sounds dated to some extent.