Michael Sembello is probably best known as the dude who performed "Maniac" and absolutely nailed the guitar solo. It's a near perfect pop song and a song I always really liked. A lot. I always wanted to get the song, but I didn't want to get the
Flashdance soundtrack, because I didn't want to. It was too much like having to listen to the kids from Fame all over again, and I know Irene Cara was a fine vocalist and all that but I never really liked her stuff, and I'm sure the passage of time has softened the edges off my opinion, but I'm sticking to my guns. I do remember almost getting this album. The cover had two oiled up dudes levitating off the ground while the guy in the white diaper cupped the other little dude's junk. It was a weird cover and Michael Sembello with his half black, half white face looked like a reject from the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" was sitting reading an old Godzilla comic. It was a little too much for my 20 year old brain.
So I passed.
Over time the song would appear on numerous '80s anthologies and collections so I didn't need to worry about picking up the soundtrack, or Michael's album. Forty years later I'm flipping through the discount section and I stumble upon Bossa Nova Hotel, and it's in decent shape and was under three bucks. It was actually a harder decision than you'd think, because a few months earlier I actually did find a copy of the Flashdance soundtrack for a buck, and it was in pretty decent shape - so I'd already scratched the itch that was "Maniac" so did I really need to get this one?
Apparently the answer was yes, I did need this. Okay, want - I wanted this. I was curious, after all - setting aside the weird cover, it was quite possible this was a hidden gem. After all, this wasn't an after thought, or some low budget indie recording. Phil Ramone produced the album, and Michael himself was a seasoned session player who had worked with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson. So the dude could play.
I've been listening to the album most of the afternoon while working on stuff in the basement, and this is certainly an enjoyable middle of the road album that sounds great. For lovers of what has now devolved into the genre "Yacht Rock" this album would likely float their boat. Reading up on the album and Mister Sembello it would seem he wanted to introduce Brazilian rhythms into pop music. Sort of like Sergio Mendez but without the coaches whistle, and long before Paul Simon had the same idea. If the Police could fuse rock and reggae, he could fuse Bossa Nova with rock. Okay, light rock.
The results are a little bit like "The Thing with Two Heads" except instead of the charm of Rosie Greer having it out with a mad scientist attached to his neck you have the bastard love child of Christopher Cross (and I LOVE CHRISTOPHER CROSS) and Michael McDonald singing along to a Linn Drum machine. Any of the urgency and magic Michael managed to capture in "Maniac" was a one off. "Godzilla" is a song so inexplicably bad I wanted it to succeed. I had hoped it was a call and response to Blue Oyster Cult's song of the same name. Nope.
The album closes with the truly strange "Superman" that oddly juxtaposes Jesus Christ with Superman, and normally I'm all for weird and wonderful, but this was just ... off.
He's as fast as a speeding buller
Change the water into wine
And the last time he came
They cursed his name
With a Krypton cross
They cut him down
Superman
Are we ever going to see you again?
I suppose it explains why diaper dude from the cover has the sword in the side wound, and the other guy has the green rock around his neck ... then again, I'm probably reaching here. It would be fun to ask Mr. Sembello about the cover.
Still if this is playing in the background it's enjoyable enough, and for that my bitching and moaning it's a decent release, but sadly nothing special. It mostly just calls to mind artists who have done the same thing, only better.
Did I mention "Maniac" was a near perfect pop song?
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