Friday, March 13, 2015

Air Supply - Lost In Love

This month marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Lost In Love, the fifth studio album from Air Supply. The album went to number 22 in New Zealand and number 21 in the band’s native home of Australia. Here in the US, it spent one hundred and four weeks on the Billboard Album chart with a peak spot of 22; it also went two times Platinum in sales.


Side one begins with the title track. “Lost In Love” first appeared on the band’s previous album Life Support; the band re-recorded it for this release. As the lead single, it hit number 13 in Australia, number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 1 in New Zealand and on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. This was a signature ballad for the group as well as a soft rock and slow dance favorite for the first few years of the 80’s.

“All Out of Love”, the second single, reached number 21 in New Zealand, number 11 in the UK, number 9 in Australia, number 5 on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, and number 2 in Canada and on the US Billboard Hot 100. This ballad was another slow dance favorite at the time.

The next mid-tempo song completes a hat-trick of hits for the album. The third single “Every Woman In the World” went to number 8 in Australia, number 7 in New Zealand, number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 2 on the US Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.

Also appearing on the previous album Life Support was “Just Another Woman”. After the first three slower tracks, this one kicks things up with an up-tempo disco beat. As a longtime fan of that genre, I like this one a lot.

“Having You Near Me”, a beautiful piano-based ballad, was the B-side to the third single.

Side two opens with “American Hearts”, a bouncy tune about young lovers who change over time. It also adds a little commentary on the change times in the US where divorce and discontent was on the rise.

Things slow down with another lovely ballad about love and loss called “Chances”. It has rich orchestration on the chorus, a popular element of music at the time.

The B-side to the second single was “Old Habits Die Hard”, a mid-tempo swaying country number.

“I Can’t Get Excited” has the potential to be a real rocking number; I hope the band really cut loose with it when the performed it live on tour. At five minutes in length, it is the album's longest cut.

The album closes with “My Best Friend”, the shortest track of the ten. The love song starts with a simple guitar accompaniment, but then some light orchestration flows into the background. Simple yet very effective.

I did not own a copy of the Lost In Love album back in the 80’s, though I did have a few of the singles on 45. They came out during my freshman year of high school when I was very heavy into pop-rock Top 40 listening. Air Supply was clearly becoming one of the big acts in that genre at that time. Listening to this whole album for the first time today, I liked it a lot.

For more from Air Supply, click here.

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