Hold Me

by William RuhlmannLaura Branigan began to falter in her quest to be the white, '80s Donna Summer with her fourth album, which failed to scale the sales heights of her first three, despite another clutch of dramatic, heavily produced Eurodisco tracks, three of which found their way onto the singles charts. The closest thing to a hit was "Spanish Eddie" (this album's remake of her first smash, "Gloria"), a song with an odd street-life lyric that made reference to Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row." Indeed, the ghost of Bob seemed to be haunting this album, which featured yet another song called "Forever Young." Elsewhere, Branigan again turned to songwriter Michael Bolton for "I Found Someone," and as she had with "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You," did it much better than its author, for what it's worth. But on the whole, Hold Me found The Branigan formula growing stale.