Alexander O'Neal – Hearsay

If anyone is selling this in the near future, I would be willing to buy it if it's in mint condition.

This is an absolute classic! With the beautiful sunshine on it! Definetly to keep as a treasure!

This guy should have been massive. Hearsay is a wonderful album, from start to finish.

Classic mid 80’s R&B - post 70’s sound but still full of funk & soul with that super entertaining 80’s sound, full of synthesisers and drum machines courtesy of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis mixed with the soul vocals of Alexander O’Neal, what’s not to love here! another great 80’s pressing on vinyl, super transparent and crystal clear.

Alexander O'Neal has so much soul in his voice, and you can hear it so clearly in the songs 'Criticize' and 'Fake' this combined with the incredible synth and bass makes a lovely album. Though a lot of the songs are a bit too slow for my liking, I still recommend this album and I'd buy it just to hear Criticize.

Alexander O'Neal was a great example of someone being around in the wrong era. If he had emerged 20 years earlier, I think he would have been so much more famous. As it was, he had commercial success, particularly in the UK, but never quite became a superstar. Reuniting with longtime friends Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis following his acclaimed debut, Hearsay managed to raise the bar even higher. It remains his highpoint both artistically and commercially, and despite sounding very 1980s it also remains a very refreshing listen.

One of the album's biggest strengths, which pushes it above all his other work, is its consistency. With the possible exception of its final track 'When The Party's Over', the standard never really dips. Jam and Lewis are the perfect collaborators for O'Neal, knowing him well enough to frequently deliver tracks tailor-made for his voice. The concept of being set at a party allows a range of lyrical themes to be explored, and the common thread of Jam and Lewis' fresh and energetic production means the album has a very nice flow. With inventive use of textured synths and slick drum machines, the beats and instrumentation of the songs already have your ears hooked, and then the vocals come in and make it even better.

O'Neal really has a unique vocal ability, as he sounds soulful and completely at home on any kind of song, across a broad range of emotions. This includes being aggressive on 'Fake' and 'Criticize', sensitive on 'Sunshine' and 'Crying Overtime', then enamoured on 'Never Knew Love Like This', the latter a brilliant duet with Cherrelle that equals their previous collaboration 'Saturday Love'.

I don't give many albums a perfect score, but on this occasion I think it is completely justified. While his debut was stellar, Hearsay remains O'Neal's best album, and in my view ranks with Janet Jackson's Control and Rhythm Nation 1814 as some of the very best work of Jam and Lewis' hit-laden career. A drastically underrated album from someone who I feel never got the respect he deserved.

At his peak, Alexander O'Neal had an abundance of soul, and a hell of a lot of stamina and ion to back it up. These days most will never mistake this featured album and his second outing, Hearsay as anything other than an Eighties R&B album. But beneath the glimmering synths, pulsating digital percussion, and Flyte Tyme's distinctive wall-of-sound/vocal layering that predict the new jack swing aesthetic (the utterly underrated Spencer Bernard and Lisa Keith, anyone?) stands greatness. The sequencing (including the clever house party-themed interludes that intercede the songs) is impeccable, spinning this into a de facto concept album that was inspired by his own turmoil and spunk. O'Neal steps into the role of a beloved playboy, who hosts a big-time house party. Setting a gaze on the happenings of the party's attendees, he smooth talks the ladies into recognizing those nasty rumors that float around him as nothing but "Hearsay," then disses a self-absorbed lover as a "Fake," and toughens up to suggest that she shut up her nagging because all she yearns to do is "Criticize." By the album's boudoir-laden second half, O'Neal spills his brand of quiet storm sensitivity over a flawless run of four ballads, recalling the dexterity of past masculine love men from the classic soul era (with Teddy Pendergrass, David Ruffin, and Lenny Williams being O'Neal's immediate antecedents.) One of the paramount albums of 80s R&B that should be uttered in the same breath of other lauded, once-in-a-lifetime classics, such as Anita's Rapture and countless others.

Great repress. Good looking purple color vinyl. Compared with the original 1987 release. More low end and great overall sound quality. A really nice release.. I would recommend this vinyl above all other.