Customer Reviews

On the Rise

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

 

 

One of the greatest albums I ever owned. Great musicianship, songwriting and production from Jimmy Jam & Lewis. Incredible lyrics from Terry Lewis. When this came out in 1983 it was light years ahead of its time. The album is also engineered and mixed with such realness and clarity. The engineer was Steve Hodge (who also did all the engineering for Solar Records). Remember, this was a time before samplers and sequencers so Jimmy actually played the bass line on "Just Be Good To Me" on synthesizer through the whole 9 minute song! Wow! Doing that now by any artist would be unheard of. ALSO probably the highest point on this album is the slowing down of "Tell Me If You Still Care". After the bridge, they gradually slowed down the master tape during mixing until the end of the song. That gave the song more depth and a dreamlike floating effect.
There hasn't been an artist yet to do that!!
Jam & Lewis are pure geniuses.
This album still sounds great even after over 20 years.

Way back in 1983 Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis were perfecting
their production style with the S.O.S Band.For the band they had already made better records but mabye the pair just didn't
know if uptempo synth pop/funk like the dencely layored "Just Be
Good To Me","I'm Not Runnin'","Tell Me If You Still Care" and the title cut would be well liked enough.Janet Jackson liked it-
four years later she and the same producers would pull a huge,
double platinum rabbit out of their hats with "Control",an
album whose music,production and arrangments can trace their
roots to THIS album.They'd get even closer on the S.O.S. Band's
next two albums but the future starts HERE 'on the rise'!!!!

I bought this album back in the early 90's for $11.99 at Tower Records. Then, it just disappeared from the shelves.
Believe me,there was plenty of stock available at that time.

Had I known that people would shell out (or even consider shelling out) the money that some individuals are trying to get for their 'used' copies today, I would have snapped all the copies up and become (almost) rich selling them!

The album itself, is nothing short of outstanding! Modern R&B perfection! However, keep your hard-earned money in your pocket and don't even consider paying over $40.00 (US) for it! It's not that I'm against a person in a capitalistic society trying to get "whatever the market will bear." We've seen enough of that with gasoline prices lately. Just be patient, and hope that a re-release of the album will come out at a reasonable price! Five stars!

This is the SOS Band album title that has been out of print on all formats for years ! On The Rise contains 2 smash ultra-funk jams of the early 80's (Just Be Good To Me, Tell Me If You Still Care) along with another smooth dance track For Your Love...It showcases just how ahead of their time the group was in utilizing the synthesizer and drum/percussion technology available then. The album is filled with some of the most entrancing and captivating R&B/Funk dance rhythms of the early 80's ! Lead singer Mary Davis had a very distinct vocal style all her own and has never been imitated or duplicated by any other artist... I was extremely fortunate to find a copy of this title on cd format at a used cd shop for x amount (well worth the amount)... This is a timeless jam/gem classic from back in the day !

Not only was Mary Davis' love was on the rise (according to the lyrics of the title song), but so were the SOS Band and what an appropriate title for the album that hit the stores in the late summer of 1983. The SOS Band scored their first top 5 R&B hits since 1980 with the smooth club hit, "Just Be Good To Me" and the sensational slow jam, "Tell Me If You Still Care." Those two songs were the first of its kind of which their producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis mastered their signature Roland TR-808 drum machine sound of which they continued to use for the group's next two albums as well as for Cheyrl Lynn ("Encore"), Thelma Houston ("You Use To Hold Me Tight"), and Janet Jackson, just to name a few. The 808s were new to the English language popular music and those two songs sealed the duos' reputation as one of the most popular producers in the next 28 years (although "Just Be Good To Me" was the song they were working on that got them fired from The Time because a blizzard in Atlanta prevented them from joining The Time to continue with the national tour). Although not as a big hit single, "For Youre Love" is my favorite song from the album (another Jam and Lewis production) which is a funky dance tune that concludes the first side of the album. Gene Dozier (who co-produced their third album and well known writer for Shalamar, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Dynasty, and The Whispers) produced all the songs on the second side of the album, of which were no match for what Jam and Lewis touched (special reason on why their were only three songs on side A and each of them were no shorter than 6 minutes each). The title track was great, but the other four songs were kind of stale and was'nt a good balance for the album's release, even as fillers. This album made it to the R&B top 10 and for the first time for the band gave them a taste in the world of music videos ("Tell Me If You Still Care," with shows the band performing on a flying cruise ship and shots of random couples, fully clothed, havin' fun) of which was starting to become the main promotional medium for black artists, after Michael Jackson set out the standards for storytelling his videos from his Thriller album (which was still on top at the time of the SOS Band's On The Rise release). As recommending the album as a whole, just download the title track and the Jam and Lewis singles.

Songs Include : Tell Me If You Still Care / Just Be Good To Me / For Your Love / I'm Not Runnin' / If You Want My Love / On The Rise / Who's Making Love / Steppin' The Stones

This album takes a brotha' back into a really fun time of the 80's when the sound of music bands were still booming. The SOS Band were one of those rare funk bands of that time period who kept a good sound going with the help of Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam. "Do You Still Care" is definitely one of my favorite slow tunes of all time. That song still sounds just as good today as it did some 20 plus years ago. That song still stands out even here in 2010. It would be nice if some record label can start releasing all of this group's self titled albums on cd, especially this title and "Just The Way You Like It". Another classic SOS album.