Continuing with the Take That festival, it's time to break out their old albums.
Take That's first was released in the summer of 1992, after the group had already put out 5 singles. It took awhile for them to catch on--their first three singles were not big hits, but by the time this came out, they had scored their first top 10 hit with "It Only Takes a Minute." Two more would follow later, including the ballad "A Million Love Songs."
Although love songs are characteristic of boybands in general, there are surprisingly few slow songs on this album. In fact, it's pretty high-energy dance pop not that different from what European "dance" acts of the time such as Haddaway or Black Box were doing. "Once You've Tasted Love," for example, has a very prominent dance beat. "It Only Takes a Minute" is also upbeat, although sounds more like something other later boybands would do.
"Could It Be Magic" has a retro-disco sound, complete with Bee Gees-esque harmonies. It's not a classic by any means, but it did its job to launch the group. Best: It Only Takes a Minute, A Million Love Songs, Once You've Tasted Love, Could It Be Magic (3/5).
5 comments:
A documentary of theirs aired after the X Factor yesterday--which talked about Robbie re-joing the band and rebuilding friendships and whatnot and I just thought it was amazing how far they've come since this album and a lot of people here kinda do sort of put them on the same pedastal as the Beatles (!)
Oh yeah, if you making a best of 1990s list, who would be your contenders for a top 10?
Albums-wise? Annie Lennox 92, Madonna 92/98, Everything But the Girl 96, Sinead O Connor 90, George Michael 90, REM 92, kd lang 92, Alanis Morissette 95, Pet Shop Boys 93, Nirvana 91/93, Mariah Carey 93, Bodyguard Soundtrack, Moby 95, Lauryn Hill 98... I guess that's more than 10.
Thanks a lot! I threw in Oasis and a couple hip-hop albums too and switched mariah 93 for 95 instead :)
Sounds good. Eventually I'd like to get around to doing a best of the '90s list. Which hip-hop albums? Puff Daddy? Notorious BIG? 2Pac?
I know you started one a couple years ago! You didn't finish it though :/ Uhh... Biggie/Jay-Z in my top 10 and 2pac and Nas in my top 20. Dr. Dre top 40 and Snoop Dogg in the bottom of the top 100 somewhere. I've added a lot of alternative rock also... some I only just started listening to days ago.
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