Sunday, September 14, 2014

The Force M.D.'s - Love Letters

Today (September 14th) marks the thirtieth anniversary of Love Letters, the debut album from the Force M.D.’s. The New York City based R&B band was made up of brothers Stevie D. Lundy, Antoine “T.C.D.” Lundy, Rodney “Khalil” Lundy and their uncle Jessie Lee Daniels. DJ Dr. Rock (Roger Daniels) rounded out the group. The album spent four weeks on the US Billboard Album chart, peaking at number 185.


Side one begins with “Be Mine, Girl”, a mid-tempo tune driven by a strong dance beat and a great mix of vocal harmonies. The guys even throw in a little bit of rapping for good measure. All in all, it is a solid opening track that gets the party going.

“Don’t Make Me Dance (All Night Long)” mixes things up with a slow-winding reggae rhythm. The guys even adopt a Jamaican vocal inflection here.

The R&B slow-jam “Tears” was released as the second single. The track has a strong Smokey Robinson and the Miracles quality to it, complete with a falsetto lead vocal.

The first single from the group was “Let Me Love You”, an up-tempo tune with a bouncing dance beat.

Side two opens with ”Itchin’ for a Scratch”, which was released as the fourth single. As expected, this one features scratching techniques popular in the free-styling sounds from New York City in the early 80’s. The guys even throw a couple of “impressions” into the mix (see if you can identify them all).

The B-side to the second single and the A-side to the third single was “Forgive Me, Girl”. The mid-tempo dance groove is about a repentant guy who has wronged his girl.

“Let’s Stay Together” draws from late 70’s R&B and funk with its bass-centric foundation and accentuating horns.

The up-tempo “I Just Wanna Love You” brings the record to a close.

I mostly knew the Force M.D.’s from their hit single “Tender Love” (which appeared on their second album and on the Krush Groove soundtrack). As such, I came into my listening to Love Letters on Spotify with a fairly fresh perspective. This is a strong debut with solid production and performances. I enjoyed it a lot; it has quickly shot up to the top of my to-buy list of 1984 albums.

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