Ladies Of The Eighties

The fourth and final installment from A Taste of Honey features much of the same as their previous outing, "Twice As Sweet" along the lines of funky jams and sweet, tender balladry. A curious item here is the album's first single, "I'll Try Something New," a RE-reading of a Smokey Robinson ballad produced and arranged in the very same vein as their previous smash hit, "Sukiyaki" complete with Japanese koto, lush strings and of course, the creamy, lazy vocal stylings of Janice Marie Johnson. Unfortunately, when a band takes the formulaic approach to try and duplicate the huge success and sound of a prior hit record, the results aren't always favorable. Although, "I'll Try Something New" is undeniably gorgeous in its arrangement and delivery, it was a taste of honey already had and a taste that was a little TOO CLOSE to the aforementioned hit ("Sukiyaki"), thus resulting in a #9 R&B hit and falling just short of Top Forty status. Other highlights include the calypso, feel good funk of "We've Got The Groove," "Sayonara" and "Midnite Snack." In most cases, a Disco band has great difficulty in crossing over to mainstream R&B, but in the case of Miss Janice and Miss Hazel, this was not true. Even though the Disco sound was on the way out, these girls remained true to their R&B/Soul roots, crossed over to Pop a couple of times and still managed to rack up a few more hits along the way in the process. Pretty sweet (AND impressive musicianship).