My Amazon Reviews: Hall & Oates "H2O"

Vitamin Water  
4 Out of 5 Stars

Hall & Oates were on a roll by 1982's H2O album. "Voices" provided a creative and commercial resurgence, "Private Eyes" may have been their best album to date, and H20 leads off with one of the duo's all time great singles, the Motown inflected "Maneater." They followed that with the seductive, soulful "One On One," and pushed themselves on an arty, edgy cover of Michael Oldfield's "Family Man." The album exudes confidence and hit-making professionalism, and deservedly peaked at number three on its release.

For the most part, is still holds up. The singles are still the strongest things on the album; at this juncture, Hall & Oates had their finger on the magic motherlode of hit crafting. They were also tapping into just enough of the new wave zeitgeist to keep the songs from teetering into pablum, with the tension of "Crime Pays" and the biting "Go Solo" being as strong as any of the hits. But fatigue is beginning to show, with John Oates' "Italian Girls" being too silly for its own good, and both "Guessing Games" and "At Tension" sounding more than a little like filler. As for Hall, never one to sheath his misogynistic streak, "Open All Night" is less than flattering.

But once you tally in the singles, the album's rating tilts up. The re-issue ups the ante by offering the dance mixes of "Maneater" and "Family Man," along with an expanded mix of "One on One." Daryl Hall and John Oates were riding an express that had a couple more great albums in them, and "H20" comes out of a period where their reach was still grasping hold on everything they were aiming for.