Pucker Up

by Amy Hanson Best known for the chart-topping "Funkytown," released in early 1980, Minneapolis electro-funkers Lipps, Inc. attempted to rekindle that success just over six months later on Pucker Up. Pulling in funk riffs and dance club beats, and layering the whole thing over Giorgio Moroder-esque synth sounds, the band delivered what amounted to "Funkytown" redux. But, from the jazz-influenced jam of "Tight Pair" to "Always Lookin'" to the Motown stylings of "The Gossip Song," the album churns along without really knocking anyone's socks off. The songs are fine and Cynthia Johnson's vocals have some passion. But everything sounds like space filler. The only place where this album really holds its worth and has some fun is on the first track -- a dance-ified cover of Ace's "How Long." The English pub rockers had a Top Five hit with the song in 1975; Lipps, Inc. threw in some Euro-disco twists and brought it back to the Top Ten in October 1980. Unfortunately, that one song is the album, and the rest just pales in its wake. And, if the truth were to be told, the album itself pales in the wake of "Funkytown." Sometimes it's better to be remembered as a one-hit wonder.