Still, Totally Hot (Soul Kiss album review)
Unlike savage passion, which was the topic of her last album Physical, Olivia Newton-John has opted for foreplay on her new release, Soul Kiss.
Soul Kiss, her first studio album in four years, is yet another conspicuous change in image and style. It’s a daring one for a 37-year-old expectant mother who already has a closet full of accolades and platinum records to her credit. From country, to mellow, to pop, to risqué rock in the eighties, only Olivia Newton-John could have worn so many musical masks and been so successful at it for nearly 15 years.
Olivia’s amazing string of hits has made her one of the most accomplished and consistent entertainers of our time. One critic ex-pressed early in the singer’s career, “if white bread could sing, it would sound like Olivia Newton-John,” referring to the blandness and innocence of her music. Little did the critic know that between the crust was enriched Australian flour. With record sales past the 100 million mark, Olivia has had the last laugh.
Newton-John began her career in 1971 singing folk and country music. Nashville proved to be her American ticket to success after recording a version of the Bob Dylan tune “If Not For You,” and traveling the London pub circuit. In 1973 she won her Grammy for Best Female Country Vocalist with “Let Me Be There.” But when Olivia left Nashville for California, her musical direction also changed. Gifted with a rare talent to convey lyrics, she turned to ballads. Olivia was quickly stereotyped as the world’s premier songstress of mellow melodies. International recognition followed with singles like “I Honestly Love You,” and “Have You Never Been Mellow.”
Mellow was the best word used to describe her music. That stage of her career carried Olivia through three gold and three platinum albums. For Olivia Newton-John it was love songs, nothing but love songs. Al-ways beautiful, but never suggestive, Olivia sang about romance and looked like she was always expected to, wholesome.
Her career caught fire with the phenomenal success of the movie Grease in 1978. The role and the movie’s music sparked a dramatic change in style. The black leather look as the film’s leading lady continued with Totally Hot, an album on which she panted, “will a little more love make it right.” It was suggestive enough to win over an all new audience, yet it wouldn’t offend old fans. Subtley, but obviously Olivia was changing with the times, or as one critic put it, “from the girl next door to hot blooded vamp.”
Her second film Xanadu fell short of expectations at the box office. It was a light-hearted musical fantasy with glossy production numbers that brought out the best of Olivia’s talents. Xanadu combined the elements of a forties musical extravaganza with a contemporary rock theme.
In late 1981, Physical was released and it revealed a steamy side of Olivia Newton-John. The album combined songs of lust, “Physical” and “Landslide,” with songs about ecology, “Silvery Rain” and “The Dolphin Song.” It was the most daring record she ever made, considering it was banned by several radio stations in the bible belt. The song released at the beginning of the exercise craze spent ten record tying weeks as the number one song in the country. In terms of record sales, both the album and single sold an excess of ten million copies.
Rolling Stone magazine described the album as “Olivia Newton-John’s best album to date, combining Pointer Sisters pop funk and Beatles psychedelia with virtuosic case. The perfect aural milkshake from the Farrah Fawcett of rock.”
The sexual innuendos in her songs continued with “Make A Move On Me.” “Make A Move On Me” and “Physical” all led to the “Heart Attack” single on her second greatest hits album. Once again quicker than turning the pages of a marketing text book Olivia changed her product from vinyl eroticism to soft edge dance rock with “Twist of Fate,”
It wasn’t a twist of fate though that on the new album Olivia has chosen material that sizzles with erotic fervor and carnal knowledge. She wails salaciously, “soul kiss is where it has to lead to, take my hand and make me need to, I get down on my knees.” The title cut will surely be another hit in the O-N-J songbook. It’s a slow sensual song and somehow Olivia makes it sound sexy instead of indecent.
The Australian diva is just as suggestive as ever with a song like “Culture Shock” which discusses a menage-à-trois situation. Once again Olivia flirts with the obscene but she does so in a peppy irresistible manner.
One of the best tracks on the LP is a duet with Beach Boy Carl Wilson called “You Were Great, How Was I?” It’s offbeat, but a great idea for a musical question that contains the old Beach Boys buoyancy. On the same theme - sex- is “Overnight Observation,” a song about a patient’s illicit after hours affair with her doctor.
But fortunately, Olivia Newton-John hasn’t lost her soul to all that physicality. She can still versify a ballad incomparably. She shines on the album’s more romantic cuts like “The Right Moment” and “Emotional Tangle.”
If there ever is a musical time capsule, Olivia Newton-John owns the right to be in it. Australia’s gift to the world has become a piece of American Pie.
by Glenn Proto