The Ritchie Family
Whether because or in spite of the fact that none of its three singers are related, the Ritchies have been together since 1974. (The group was named after Ritchie Rome, who arranged their first album.) Linda James—replacing Dodie Draher, off on maternity leave—is new on this album, but lead vocalist Vera Brown and Jacqui Smith-Lee are familiar voices and names. The Ritchies have recorded such disco-funk hits as Brazil, Quiet Village and I'll Do My Best. They must have been doing something right in the past, but you couldn't tell it from this album. It is a masterpiece of monotony, incorporating the most tedious aspects of disco rhythms with extraordinarily bland lyrics of the Lost in Your Love and I Wanna Be Yours ilk. Brown's singing is vivacious enough, but these original tunes (five of them all or partly written by producer Gavin Christopher) drone on, ooze all over each other, and end up creating a feeling that the album is 40 minutes, 56 seconds of nothing.
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