The 1980 Listening Post - Footloose - Footloose

 Reviewed by Chris Roberts

Released: 1980 Footloose Footloose Genre: AOR Rating: 1 out of 5 I have a friend (we’ll call her Louise) who’s favorite meal is a chicken breast with plain rice. Louise doesn’t enjoy eating. I’m unclear if it’s a condition or extreme pickiness, but Louise’s meals consist of the few ingredients she can tolerate. In addition to rice and chicken, she also eats bananas, well-done beef patties and bread. No added spices or sauces. Footloose (the album) is the chicken and rice dinner for the Louises who don’t enjoy music. It’s music for when music is a requirement, not a joy. Here’s some examples: • The last song played in a very long end-credit sequence for a movie released in September receiving two thumbs down • The on-hold music for a bankrupt service company’s court ordered customer service line. • Suburban dentist office with shag carpeting and empty fish tank. • The fancy-free cassette that comes with your new Chevy Citation. • Small rural towns where teen dancing is forbidden. This crap is AOR at it’s AORiest. So smooth you don’t even know it’s there. None of that noise like you’d hear at say, Safeway, or on a Gino Vanelli album. I streamed Footloose on YouTube and the highlights would have to be the five seconds of advertising between songs. I would encourage Listening Post members, music fans, the music-tolerant, the comatose and the deaf to skip this one. You’ve heard it before you just don’t remember it. Internet finds: • The opening track “Leaving for Maui” was a 1979 Top Ten hit in Hawaii. Aloha fuckers! • Footloose blame goes to Tim Feehan, who quit “the band” after this album came out. Feehan went on to bigger success as the singer-songwriter with dozens of songs that have appeared on hit TV shows; he also co-wrote/produced Tiffany’s fifth album and owns Backroom Studios in Glendale, CA. • Thanks to Kevin Bacon, Kenny Loggins and the rest … this album is not the easiest to find on the internet.