Herbie Hancock - Lite Me Up (1982)

Japanese Import

The magical year of 1982 continues to give me new musical gifts even after all these decades. You won't find any jazz on this album, but there sure is a lot of fantastic soul-pop. Lightweight, but a fun listen - even better in the summer. Hancock's last album before entering his electro-funk phase, the easiest way to think of this album is as the sequel to The Dude (or, possibly, Off The Wall). And I mean that in the most complimentary way imaginable - it plays like an extension of that Quincy Jones album. The most obvious commonality between the two LPs (other than Hancock himself) is songwriter Rod Temperton, who wrote or co-wrote 6 of the album's 8 tracks. There's also lots of familiar personnel from The Dude: Patti Austin, Steve Lukather, Jeff Porcaro, Michael Boddicker, Jerry Hey, etc.

More on the release from Hancock's personal website: https://www.herbiehancock.com/album/lite-me-up/

Hancock's vocoder use gets old rather quickly, but it does a good job of covering up his occasional vocal pitch problems. (Ironically, American Idol's Randy Jackson, the man who coined the nonsense word "pitchy," plays bass on track 5). Hancock wisely hands off vocal duties to Wayne Anthony on several tracks. Regardless, in every tune you can count on Hancock for a tasty solo, even if they're occasionally far too brief. For the record, his best solo work is on the closing track, Give It All Your Heart.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "Hancock's musicianship will satisfy his jazz fans if they're willing to wade through a hit or two."
• CashBox: "a blend of techno-funk and jazz fusion that forms a potent platter"
• Stereo Review: "thoroughly satisfying"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200: #151
• Billboard Jazz LPs: #10
• Billboard R&B: #31
• CashBox: #113
• CashBox Jazz: #6
• Radio & Records Jazz Radio National Airplay: #4

Tracks: I enjoy the whole thing, but my choice picks are the funky title track and Paradise (a westcoast jam written by David Foster and Jay Graydon, produced by Graydon). Two singles from the album charted on the Billboard R&B chart in 1982: Lite Me Up! (#52) and Gettin' To The Good Part (#47). Paradise and The Fun Tracks were also released but did not chart.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: a cut from Hancock's 1978 Sunlight album (I Thought It Was You) got stuck in my head, so naturally I had to listen to that album, then kept following his disco-era discography chronologically for a while and eventually found myself streaming this album. I was immediately hooked and picked up this CD fairly quickly, wondering why I'd never heard it before.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Best of Herbie Hancock: The Blue Note Years (1988)
Head Hunters (1973)