The complete early-to-mid 80s albums DeBarge cut for Motown – The DeBarges, All This Love, In A Special Way and Rhythm Of The Night – plus a bonus disc of remixes and rarities – in this excellent 3CD set from Motown & Hip-O
Select! Disc 1 features The DeBarges and All This Love albums. The first album is a great batch of harmony soul that updates the "family" sound of 70s groups like The Sylvers, Five Stairsteps, and others! The tracks on this record focuses nicely on the vocals, and really lets the harmonies come through in a beautiful way! Titles include "Hesitated", "What's Your Name", "Queen Of My Heart", "You're So Gentle So Kind", and "Strange Romance". All This Love is a stone pop soul winner with lots of electro arrangements – fuzzy keyboards and bass pedals grooving around in a way that's got traces of "street" electro, mixed with some super-smooth LA production, and used brilliantly by the group in a family-based pop harmony! Tracks that include "I Like It", "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", "All This Love", "I'm In Love With You", "Can't Stop", "It's Getting Stronger", and "Life Begins With You". Disc 2 features In A Special Way and Rhythm Of The Night. The former, again, comes with an undeniably catchy groove and it's made even better by the mellower numbers. Includes "Stay With Me", sampled to great effect, and a tune elevates this album above all the rest – plus "Time Will Reveal" (the previously unreleased long version), "Need Somebody", "Be My Lady", "Love Me In A Special Way" and "Queen Of My Heart". Rhythm Of The Night is the group's most polished and pop-oriented album to date – a move that pays off huge with unshakably insistent hooks – a nice piece of modern soul history. Includes "Who's Holding Donna Now" and "Rhythm Of The Night", plus "Single Heart", "You Wear It Well", 'The Walls Come Tumbling Down" and "Share My World". The bonus disc here is great – featuring long versions, rare M&M Mixes and instrumentals! 10 in all: "Rhythm Of The Night (Long Version)", "You Wear It Well (M&M Club Mix)", "The Heart Is Not So Smart" (M&M Club Mix)", "By My Lady (Instrumental)", "All This Love (Alternate Version)" and more.