Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love

"We went insane, and we took cocaine..." Ms Weymouth sings at one point. Perhaps that's why, despite (what I remember) as being a bit of a buzz about the group and this record in particular at the time, it never really broke through into the mainstream. That and also perhaps because of the name-checking of some underground folk who many of us only started to recognize years later - for instance 'Bohannon'. (This record is also better known for mentioning James Brown, Bootsy Collins and Sly & Robbie). Still, a wistful neo-reggae vibe - no doubt aided by it being recorded in Nassau - pleasantly permeates this song. That and the sick and a little sad irony of the tale in the lyric (check it out for yourself) wraps it up as a nice and quirky, almost subversive, plus enjoyable groove, masquerading as something altogether lighter. 'Disco-not-disco' aficionados ought to check it really as a good candidate for a set opener in that style.

Original promo 12" is very hard to find but it has been reissued. The Mariah Carey song that sampled Genius of Love is called Fantasy and it actually sounds pretty good after ten years..

This is that classic early '80s cross between synth-pop and (?)hip-hop. That's right, it found a home in the samples of several hip-hop afficiandos and apparently was good enough to be used in a song by Mariah Carey, however, don't quote me on that! I've never heard it myself and was only told about it after playing it for a DJ friend of mine. Genius Of Love is so groovy, but Lorelie is also a beautiful song, too. The only problem is they should have used the vocal edit in long version form and they'd have had a winner on their hands. But they instead used an instrumental version which is good too but not like the really beautiful vocal version included on the Tom Tom Club album. Either way, this is a slice of pie you won't want to miss!