Barry Manilow - If I Should Love Again
#397
By MacArthur Antigua
September 1 1981
Barry Manilow
If I Should Love Again
Genre: Adult Contemporary
Allen’s Rating: 2 out of 5
MacArthur’s Rating: 3 out of 5
Highlights:
Don't Fall In Love With Me
I Haven't Changed the Room
"And maybe the old songs will bring back the old times /
Maybe the old lines will sound new /
Maybe she'll lay her head on my shoulder /
Maybe old feelings will come through"
From the opening track of Barry Manilow's 8th studio album, "If I Should Love Again," you pretty much get the gist of the whole album: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
While I can't say I dig Manilow, I respect the guy and his craft. Dude knows hooks. He's got a terrific voice. He already had about 12 years in the biz writing songs, pounding out jingles and selling albums.
If you're a fan of the Great American Songbook, and love yourself a schmaltzy ballad - then, brother, you've come to the right place. And apparently, a good chunk of America agreed as it went single platinum in 1981. The ballads on this album are so on-point and of the time, you could convince me they were all from successful rom-com soundtracks, and I wouldn't bat an eye.
For me, what makes it tough to love this album is that it's practically all ballads. I'm not saying I need Copacabana part II, but how about at least one song over 90BPM? Below is the track by track reaction, but overall it's yeoman Manilow and perfect 1980's Adult Contemporary. If you're not into that...well, yeah, nothing much to see here.
Track x Track:
The Old Songs. Yearning Ballad. Super clean production - I think there's a conga drum tastefully placed in there? Is it meta for wanting to bring his audience back?
Let's Hang On. Franki Valli & The Four Seasons Cover? Valli's original vocal has some grit and urgency, while Manilow's is just so clean and corporate. This is the quintessential doo-wop track, and it needs hand claps and soaring falsettos - this new version has strings and a disco hi-hat. WTF? This is the second track? Seriously?!?
If I Should Fall In Love. Dramatic piano ballad. Interesting time change between the verse and chorus. Outside of that, it's a decent piece of work.
Don't Fall in Love With Me. More mysterious sounding, and it actually sounds more of the time. Mid-tempo makes it up-tempo compared to the rest of the album. Strong sax solo in the bridge. I like the restrained performance - it's almost like he's whispering this request to the listener. Gets in and out in 3:40 - solid work, Barry.
Break Down The Door. A little more saucy - with a bit more of a head bob bassline, and a disco stomp (in a good way). Maybe I like this because I needed a li'l more juice compared to the ballad heavy front-side. Mid song, it leaves it's steady gallop to a propulsive bridge (akin to Hall & Oates "Maneater"), but then comes back to its starting strut:
"Do you want me to plead? Do you want me to cry?
Any proof that you need, any promise you'll buy
Do you want me to break down the door?
Do you want me to break down the door?
Break down the door."
Yeah the chorus read pretty pedestrian, but an energized Manilow makes it work.
Somewhere Down The Road. ...and we're back to the ballad territory. This is the "goodbye...for now" song. However, with the sunny chord progressions, and triumphant trumpet riffs - this track best captures what All Music's Bryan Bess says about Manilow's superpower: "Making heartbreak sound hopeful." This felt like the perfect track to close the album.
No Other Love. Yeesh, back to back ballads. And this is more sad bastard than all of the other ones: "No other love / In all of the world / In all of my life / There was no other love." It's fine as a ballad, but it's hard for me to distinguish them when there's like 6 of them on one album. However, about half way through the track, he appears to restart the song after an orchestral interlude. It's a bit disorienting, almost like this song is a medley of two different songs? Then after about a minute, he comes back to the "No Other Love" refrain, bigger and with key change.
Fools Get Lucky. No Other Love had a lush and dense arrangement - while this one does have strings, it's a bit more spare, and it serves the track better. As much as he can make heartbreak seem hopeful; this track illustrates how he can make gratitude seem melancholy: "But fools get lucky / Fortune must like me / When people ask where you came from / I tell them that / Fools get lucky."
I Haven't Changed The Room. Probably the most depressing song on the whole track. But the songwriting is so succinct, and the arrangement of just piano and Manilow's voice is tidy. This could've been from a Broadway musical, it's so tight. At 2:20, it's like the Manny Pacquiao of the album - pound for pound (or measure for measure) the tightest track.
Let's Take All Night. Even though it's a swaying paced goodbye song, it's still optimistic. As the narrator and his lover faces the inevitable goodbye, there's at least a sense of agency - a sort of spitting into the wind: "Smile for me / Why don't we / Make this the sweetest of memories / The love that we make now / Is all we have"
You're Runnin' Too Hard. There's a bluesy piano bounce, and a thucka-thucka back beat. This song is nothing like the others, yet it's still very much Manilow on-brand with his sauntering vocal and eager backing vocals. Even though the song is a bit of a lament, it may be the most fun he's having on the whole album. I kept waiting for it to break into the American Bandstand theme.
https://open.spotify.com/album/53qLWhsWV3ICiV2aXp2KB4?si=sV2W-ZuGSMm-o9PxgIk5Pw
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