Giant Steps - The Book of Pride (1988)

Note: this release was originally purchased as a cassette tape, later replaced by a CD.

I don't know anything about the British duo Giant Steps except that they are a one-hit wonder and this was the group's only album. In 1988, however, I saw the video for (The World Don't Need) Another Lover on MTV one day, immediately loved it, bought the tape. It's all typical late '80s electronic R&B/dance music in the vein of Rick Astley and Scritti Politti. I don't think it's great, but, for me, it was the right music at just the right time. I listen to it once or twice a year, almost exclusively during the summer.

Billboard, August 13, 1988, p. 82

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #184

Tracks: The previously mentioned Another Lover is easily the best track here - it peaked at #13 on the pop chart while an extended mix peaked at #10 on the Billboard Dance chart. Said mix would have made a nice bonus track on this CD. You may recognize Another Lover from the opening title sequence of the 1989 Patrick Dempsey movie, Loverboy (j/k - nobody remembers that movie). Track 3, Into You, also spent a few weeks on the charts, peaking at #33 dance/#58 pop. I also enjoy the ballad Do You Still Care For Me. Of the 10 tracks, I usually only skip two: Golden Hours (Bone) and Dream Wonderful. Other than those two, I find the album to be very listenable.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  I often refer to the summer of 1988 as "The Lost Summer of Mark" for personal reasons ("The Summer of Lost Mark" might be a better way to put it), but apparently there was some good music that summer. Then Paula Abdul and Milli Vanilli came along and spoiled the end of the '80s for everybody. Anyway, in addition to this one, the following albums always immediately take me back to the summer months of 1988:

• The B-52's - Bouncing Off the Satellites
• Terence Trent D'Arby - Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby
• Thomas Dolby - Aliens Ate My Buick
• Def Leppard - Hysteria
• R.E.M. - Dead Letter Office
• The Smithereens - Green Thoughts
• INXS - Kick
• Steve Winwood - Roll With It
• Erasure - The Innocents
• Book of Love - Lullaby
• Soundtrack from Bright Lights, Big City
• ...plus the singles Information Society - What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy), Depeche Mode - Behind The Wheel/Route 66, and Rick Astley - Together Forever.