Down on the Street is the fifth studio album by the London jazz-funk band Shakatak, released in 1984.
Containing their last sizeable UK hit single (the title track peaked at No 17 in August 1984), Down On The Street was also Shakatak’s final Top 10 UK album and marked the start of a slide in the collective’s commercial fortunes.
With radio programmers now largely ignoring the band’s output, this reissue comes as a refreshing excursion to that decade’s dancefloor, now largely remembered for brasher, more cutting-edge acts.
Ethereal, soprano-pitched vocals and melodic, jazz-influenced piano riffs are largely the order of the day here, so, even back then, Shakatak was considered something of an oddity in the pop charts, despite their enjoying six UK Top 40 hits over a three-year run.
Nothing here will likely win any new converts, but this is a polished, hard-to-characterise collection that demonstrates why the band deserved its slice of mainstream success – and continues to find an audience to this day.
The album consists of 9 tracks, and shows signs of suspect remastering - the bass is exagggerated, the percussion is a little too aggressive, the vocals shrill and slightly hissy. Nonetheless, it's still reasonably okay and more than listenable. The quality of the music itself certainly helps; there are no dud tracks, from the catchy singles to the frenetic Fire Dance and the gorgeous jazzy closer Lady
The album produced two other singles: "Watching You" and "Don't Blame It on Love".
Side A
A1. Down On The Street - 3:22
A2. Holding On - 4:34
A3. Summer Sky - 4:22
A4. Hypnotised - 4:28
Side B
B1. Don’t Blame It On Love - 3:25
B2. Photograph - 4:25
B3. Watching You - 5:22
B4. Fire Dance - 5:00
B5. Lady (To Billie Holiday) - 3:11
Notes
Release: 1984
Format: LP
Genre: Jazz-Funk
Label: Polydor Records
Catalog# 823304-1
Vinyl: VG+
Cover: VG+
Prijs: €10,00
