• AllMyVinyl #30
• Band: Hall & Oates
• Album Title: Big Bam Boom
• Release Date: 12 Oct 1984
• Date purchased: Unknown
• Location purchased: Unknown
• Color of vinyl: Black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

I grew up in Philly, and when you live there, you know certain bands.  You can’t grow up there and not know about people like Joan Jett, The Roots, The Hooters, Patti LaBelle, Cinderella, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Jim Croce, John Corabi, and many others.  But one from my time years back that you cannot NOT know about is Hall & Oates.

That’s Darryl Hall & John Oates.  They were an AM radio staple when I was much younger, and then I remember riding on the bus to go to Sears to buy their Private Eyes album on cassette tape (along with Journey’s Escape) for my brand new Walkman.  Hall & Oates were always there, but oddly, I don’t have much vinyl. Truth be told the copy of this album I don’t remember buying, but obviously I did (this was one of my old 80’s collection rescued from my mom’s basement in 2023).  This album came out in 1984, and the previously mentioned Private Eyes was 1981 and I was already buying tapes over vinyl, so I have no memory 40 years out why I bought this one on vinyl, but here it is.  I’m a little surprised I don’t have one of their greatest hits things on vinyl, I might have to look into that.

Anyway, I put this on, and was hit by the fact that this isn’t the Hall & Oates of the 70’s (Sara Smile, Rich Girl), or even into the early 80’s like Private Eyes.  They’re definitely exploring the soundscape., and not everything on this one works for me.  There’s some good stuff here, but a lot of what I would call filler.  In reading some quotes by them saying stuff like “The making of Big Bam Boom involved a mixture of traditional recordings and state-of-the-art technologies”.  This including some synthesizers like the Synclavier & the Fairlight models.  I’m not entirely sure what the difference is, but there’s for sure a different sound here.  Not quite that 80’s Depeche Mode keyboard sound, but definitely different than what Hall & Oates were known for at this time.

As I said, several of the songs were just “there”, and didn’t do anything for me.  The album isn’t exactly bad, but it doesn’t have a lot that really wants to make me go “Hey, lets listen to this album a second time after finishing” – which to be honest a lot of albums in this project have made me do.

This album for me is mostly a bunch of big singles and some other stuff.  The three big songs on here are Out of Touch, Method of Modern Love, and Some Things are left unsaid.  They’re all good Hall & Oates songs with their usual catchy hooks and whatnot.  Beyond those, I don’t have a ton to say on other songs.  Here’s a few exceptions.

Bank On Your Love – This has a harder sound (for them). Wouldn’t call it hard rock, but I like the sound of this more than the singles we know. Definitely a track I’d forgotten about completely.

Possession Obsession – Has an odd vocal intro, but some nice guitar work after that.

All American Girl – has an odd vibe that I liked, but is another song that doesn’t sound like traditional HAO.

So overall, – it’s a mid range album.  Not bad, but beyond the big singles, there wasn’t a lot that got me going here.  I likely bought this FOR the big singles, as I have little recall of anything else.   It’s also my only Hall & Oates on vinyl, so the only time I’m going to be talking about them.