Customer Reviews

So Full Of Love

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The most complete album the O'JAYS did. Just about every song is classic. Man O Man, when I heard 'Cry Together" it set it all off for me. And I don't care if I don't understand the message of "Brandy', still love the song. So, O'JAYS, Take Me To The Stars, so I can Sing My Heart Out.

The O'Jays Are Living Legends&their Music is Timeless.TOgether with the Philly Sound they Give Up A Good Solid Disc here.Brandy is the cut as is Use Ta Be My Girl.it still sounds Good.

jeez im 64 now and have had a crush on eddie for all my life! they sing with so much soul that when i hear certain songs (ship ahoy) its easy for me to get the chills and tear up.in fact, i cant think of one song that i dislike period!

Considering the mixed quality on their previous album Travelin at the Speed of Thought there seemed to be the possibility that the O'Jays successful run of hit albums/singles had come to a hault. So it was decided that the O'Jays needed something new in their repertoire. This particular CD reissue actually explains it better than I could in the liner notes. But the music tells the story just as well. As lead singer Eddie Levert had even indicated,people in the late 70's were beginning to lose interest in hearing "a message in the music" anymore. Even positive ones. Since the Philly sound were so intent on that,and the O'Jays were it's primary ambassadors on the "people music" front,the big question was how they could change up and still have some kind of message. The answer was simpler than it seemed.

Musically at least this is something of a slicker album than before,more textured by keyboards than the heavy orchestration of earlier Philly productions. And the message? Well it's still all about love,though more of a general and romantic sort than "love of humanity". This album features a series of excellent romantic ballads,all coming from different aspects. They start with "Sing My Heart Out" where...well the idea of romance is so strong it actually does inspire song like a real life musical. "Cry Together" actually has a very positive message,especially for men regarding emotional release,on both sides of a relationship can create growth. "Help (Somebody Please)" and "This Time Baby" are both similarly as strong. "Brandy" of course the song that,on the ballad end bought people into it. One of those tales of a song that,in this case literally seems to bring back a lost love.

Of course "Use Ta Be My Girl" was the tune that revived the O'Jays fortune. An uptempo number with strong keyboard overtones was just the sort of songs that would revive their fortunes. I always love to hear it even when it's played on radio a lot today. "Take It To The Stars" is another great and unheralded uptempo song here-something of a jazzy/keyboard based sophistifunk type piece. Even though Gamble/Huff and Thom Bell wrote much of this music they let another longtime Philly writer Bunny Sigler take over for the rocking Isley-like funk of "Strokety Stroke". Not typical O'Jays even for the 70's but representative of the changes they were making. Even though in retrospect this would prove a last gasp rather than a new beginning for the O'Jays,at least on the pop side the R&B audience at the very least had them back. Not only that but there was proof they were still vital enough to keep their run going for those who wanted to hear.

So full of love and so full of great memories! Love the O'Jays and all they contributed to good music!

This one was a little better for the O'Jays, and they even got a big hit with "Use Ta Be My Girl". The only really thing that's wrong is that the social conscious material was gone. I think maybe because by this time disco was in super bloom, and no one wanted to hear anything else. But with that being said, it was good to see the O'Jays put out a very good record

A good album and surprisingly, The O'Jays top-selling album. It's not near their best, but it's solid. Hey, it's The O'Jays, they don't put out many bad albums.

This album is worth it just for the hits, "Use Ta Be My Girl," "Cry Together," and "Brandy." Those are three tremendous songs, espcially "Use Ta Be My Girl" a fun, up-tempo song. It's just unreal and if you've seen the group perform it in concert, it's even better!

"Cry Together" is Eddie Levert at his balladeer best. He really brings it.

Walter Williams steals the show with "Brandy" a fantastic ballad -- and yes folks, it's gotta be about losing a dog. Listen to the lyrics! It's wonderful.

Where this album slips down to four stars is the album cuts, not the hits. The group usually jam packs an album with tremendous non-hits, example, "Who Am I" and "When The World's At Peace" off the "Backstabbers" album.

"I Sing My Heart Out" is solid, but why on earth did they start the album this way. The album starts out plodding with this song. They should've flipped the second tune -- "Use Ta Be My Girl" -- to the opening track.

"This Time Baby" and "Take Me To The Stars" are only so-so, and "Help (Somebody Please)" is average. "Strokety Stroke" is a jokety joke. The group deserves better songs than that.

Not their best effort, but it's now sold pretty cheaply. It's a worthy pickup, especially for the hits.

After years of owning this album on vinyl, I finally got round to adding it to my CD collection. It used to be all about "Use Ta Be My Girl". Back in the days when I used to be a DJ, I'd put that on at a party and the crowd would go wild. It was guaranteed. But after listening to the whole album on my own at home, I grew to love all the songs, particularly "Sing My Heart Out", "Cry Together", "Brandy" and "Help (Somebody, Please)".

Call me an old fashioned fuddy duddy but I truly miss this kind of music. Not just in terms of how it was made back in those days - with soul, warmth, real instruments and real talent; Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff will go undoubtedly down in history as two of the best songwriters and producers of their generation - but more importantly, in terms of the lyrical content and thus the music's overall message. (Whether intended or not).

The material's very light on (though not totally devoiod of) what I like to refer to as crass innuendo. The emphasis seems to be on love, not sex. For instance, on "Use Ta Be My Girl", the group sings about the woman's "charming personality", the fact that she's "smart", and we're told we "can't beat her cooking". On "Cry Together" we are reminded during the intro that "a relationship ain't nothin' without communication". The song, which is basically about a couple crying in each other's arms before making love, toys with the gasp inducing notion of a man actually showing emotion. You don't get to hear much of that sort of thing these days.

Unlike most male soul/r&b singers today who seem to be selling anything but, these guys were all and only about their voices and the beautiful songs they sang. The sense of nostalgia I feel anytime I listen to music like this can sometimes be overwhelming. But like I said: I'm probably just an old fashioned fuddy duddy. I'm proud of it though.

But enough about me. Do check this one out. It's classic gold.

Early 70's O'Jays Back Stabbers was great, then this late 70's was romantic and the beginning of the "For Lovers Only" format after the "9:00 p.m." hour. I remember me and my best friend laughing when we found out the song "Brandy" was about a dog!!! Still, this is one of my favorite albums by the O'Jays.

On "So Full of Love," the O'Jays stopped the "message" songs that characterized their previous Philadelphia International albums. David Nathan's liner notes quote the group's Eddie Levert as having said that people didn't want to hear messages anymore.

However unfortunate, that opinion follows the overused adjective for late-'70's music as "hedonistic" (I've read that word in music writing everywhere). It also worked, as "So Full of Love" became the O'Jays' highest-charting album ever, reaching #6 in the summer of '78 (not 1979 as shown on the back cover and booklet).

The eight tracks alternate between slow and fast. The latter include the disc's only big pop hit, the wonderful "Use Ta Be My Girl." A little doo-wop, a little disco, it's one of my favorite O'Jays songs. The version of "This Time Baby" here is very good, but doesn't quite reach the intoxicating disco heights Jackie Moore took it to the following year. For me, "Strokety Stroke" (what do you think this song is about?) is too tacky for a group of the O'Jays' stature, but other reviewers seem able to get past that and feel its considerable funk. "Take Me To the Stars" (the next lyric is "and let me be your space station") could only have happened at the peak of Earth, Wind, & Fire and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." I wonder what the kids of today's hip-hop-dominated R&B world would think of it.

All the slow ones are fine, with the standout being the R&B hit "Brandy." I can't tell if Brandy is a girlfriend, baby girl, or a pet. She was left on a doorstep in the rain, she's his best friend, he loves her, she ran away, he's a fraction of a man without her. But how would a grown woman get left on his doorstep? If it's a baby girl, there's nothing about how old she got when she ran away. Regrettably, I'm reminded of Henry Gross' miserable song "Shannon," also apparently about a missing dog, which made the top 10 a couple of years before this. That song really really upsets me. I'd appreciate anyone persuading me that this is not another lost-dog song. Anyway, for now, this remains one of pop's (lesser) unsolved mysteries.

Did this review run off the rails or what? I meant for it to be concise! Anyway, I recommend this record.