Shalamar - Go for It (1981/2021)

Coming on the heels of two Top Ten LPs, Shalamar's 1981 Go for It, their second album of the year, barely stumbled into the Top 20, reflecting the band's own brief mid-career slump. Still intent on delivering up-tempo R&B hinging on urban beats, disco strings, and funky interludes, Shalamar was suffering from the beginning of inter-band strife that would eventually find both founder members, Jody Watley and Jeffrey Daniels, leaving the group for the less-stressful pastures of solo work. And although only one song, the bright-popped but bland "Sweeter As the Days Go By," broke away to enter the charts, there are still some fine moments across the LP. "Go for It," which uses strings and a remarkably fluid bass to marvelous effect, is particularly strong and it's surprising that it wasn't tagged for a single. This, in turn, is well complemented by the edgy James Ingram-penned "You've Got Me Running," while "Talk to Me," co-written by Watley, is a smooth piece of funk-inflected R&B. Elsewhere, though, the band degenerates into the fairly generic slow-movers "Good Feelings" and "The Final Analysis," which features singer Stephanie Mills, both causing Go for It to fumble as often as it flies.