Imagination cover

Imagination

Released

This killer set from the Whispers, Imagination, dropped in 1980 as disco, apparently dead according to the larger music industry, was simply mutating into various new forms, including the SOLAR label’s high-end electro-soul/boogie sound, perfectly exemplified here. Imagination is a confident, strident and joyful affair, the Scott twins’ lead vocals just soar, and the whole thing is pristinely produced and polished to a fine shine. The title tune opens up with a taut drum fill and bold brassy dancefloor clarion call that coalesces into this ridiculously tight, layered, perfectly functioning boogie machine of a track, and before you’ve had time to take it in you’re getting swept along by swooping melodic peaks and troughs and euphoric twists and turns. And bar a couple of romantic retro ballads, the rest of the album follows the same pattern, including the undoubted highpoint and the location of one of soul music’s finest basslines (supplied by the track’s producer Leon Sylvers III), “It’s A Love Thing.”

Harold Heath

Suggestions
Wild and Peaceful cover

Wild and Peaceful

Kool & the Gang
Pulsar cover

Pulsar

Almunia
Blue River cover

Blue River

Smith & Mudd
Re:member cover

Re:member

Ólafur Arnalds
Circles cover

Circles

City Limits
Boogie Down U.S.A. cover

Boogie Down U.S.A.

People's Choice
Brunswick cover

Brunswick

Bambi Davidson
2nd Resurrection cover

2nd Resurrection

The Stairsteps
Salsoul cover

Salsoul

Joe Bataan
Le Suivant cover

Le Suivant

Smith & Mudd