Released the same year as Hall & Oates' Abandoned Luncheonette and like that lost classic produced by Arif Mardin, AWB had sufficient grit to appease the purists, but enough melodic and rhythmic hooks for it to reach No 1 in America. "Pick Up The Pieces", the attempt to out-funk Ohio Players and their mid-'70s ilk, now sounds as much of a novelty contrivance as Stock Aitken Waterman's "Roadblock". But "Person To Person" is authentically Stax-like and "Work To Do" is as Philly-fabulous as The O'Jays. "Nothing You Can Do" is horn-driven and harmony-drenched, "Keeping It To Myself" has the midtempo insistence of an Al Green hit, while "Just Wanna Love You Tonight" is almost in the "She's Gone" white soul superleague.
Released the same year as Hall & Oates’ Abandoned Luncheonette and like that lost classic produced by Arif Mardin, AWB had sufficient grit to appease the purists, but enough melodic and rhythmic hooks for it to reach No 1 in America. “Pick Up The Pieces”, the attempt to out-funk Ohio Players and their mid-’70s ilk, now sounds as much of a novelty contrivance as Stock Aitken Waterman’s “Roadblock”. But “Person To Person” is authentically Stax-like and “Work To Do” is as Philly-fabulous as The O’Jays. “Nothing You Can Do” is horn-driven and harmony-drenched, “Keeping It To Myself” has the midtempo insistence of an Al Green hit, while “Just Wanna Love You Tonight” is almost in the “She’s Gone” white soul superleague.
