The Soul Vendor: Loose Ends - Love's Got Me (1990)

Wednesday, 2 May 2012

Loose Ends - Love's Got Me (1990)

Ten Records TENCD 330

Originally formed in the very early 1980’s, and comprised of members Carl McIntosh, Jane Eugene, and Steve Nichol, Loose Ends are probably the closest thing the UK ever had to a soul/R&B band to perform the impossible task of breaking America (well, until Soul II Soul came along in the late 80’s, that is).

The superb Hangin' On A String (Contemplating) was a hit, both here and America, peaking at #13 on the UK Singles Chart and a healthy #1 in the US R&B Singles Charts, and served as a platform for a small handful of classy minor hits to follow. They disbanded in the late 80’s, but by 1990, a new look Loose Ends appeared, with a reshuffled line-up of Carl McIntosh, Linda Carriere and Sunay Suleyman, and released the album ‘Look How Long’, which had an edgier and more urban sound than the band previously had displayed.

The band split again not long after the dust had settled on their last four releases, but briefly reformed to make a very decent song with Hip-Hop uber producer Pete Rock in 1998 on his Soul Survivor LP. Carl McIntosh threw himself into production duties, producing very respectable names such as Caron Wheeler, and remixing for the likes of D’Angelo among others.

…but I digress. ‘Look How Long’ spawned three monstrous singles, Don’t Be A Fool (Mickey has posted that particular classic elsewhere on TSV), Cheap Talk, and, my favourite of the bunch, the infectiously funky Love’s Got Me.

Love’s Got Me was propelled along by cheeky usage of a Funky Drummer-esque breakbeat sampled from the excellent Sleep Talk by Alyson Williams, and a Carl McIntosh who sang, in places, like he was channelling the late great Marvin Gaye. It was further helped along by an extended version, which added trippy dub elements after four minutes of normality to make a club dance-floor smash - and provide my favourite version of the track.

The flipside, 'Feel The Vibe...' is a nice chill-out track without sans vocals that wouldn't be out of place on a trendy "bar music" collection CD. Not quite the quality of the lead track, but not bad as a bonus.

Love’s Got Me, for me, stands alongside Hangin' On A String (Contemplating) as Loose Ends finest moment.

What do you think?

- Kymba

PS - why are some of my posts showing up with Mick as the poster? D'ya reckon this is something to do with the site being previously and you re-upping my posts, Mick? I've only just noticed it where I'm going back to older posts and putting a new working DL link in.