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Never Too Much is the debut solo studio album by American singer Luther Vandross, released on August 12, 1981, by Epic Records. Mostly composed by Vandross himself, the album reached number 19 on the US Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, and has been certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Never Too Much earned Vandross two Grammy Award nominations in 1982, including Best New Artist and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male. The album's title track topped the Black Singles chart for two weeks. Vandross's rendition of Dionne Warwick's 1964 song "A House Is Not a Home" became one of his signature songs, and received attention for its transformation into an "epic", since its duration was extended to seven minutes. In 2020, the album was ranked number 362 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
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Reviews
Unexplored territory in this list. Worth the listen.
3.8 - really good 5 actually
Yeah this is the stuff that should be on the OG list. Some great R&B. My personal rating: 4/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Yes.
Interesting to hear an album of music from an artist I knew but didn’t really know. It made me wonder what his concerts were like. Great voice, questionable lyrics in this post me too era. All in all not an album for me.
Oooh dig that sultry 80s vibe more now than ever… all the better with that impressive slap bass. Never too much for me!
Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Never too much, Sugar and spice, She’s a super lady, A house is not a home
I hadn't thought about Luther Vandross in a minute - which made me sad when I thought about it, he was such an iconic figure in R&B and Soul throughout my youth and well into my adult life. Gone far too young, a victim of ruthless family genetics. Reading up on this I was surprised to see his solo career actually started relatively late. This is just solid R&B, all about that voice, though the instrumental music isn't at all phoned in, backed by an absolute murderers' row of session artists, prolific R&B/Soul collaborators, and talented backup singers.
The title-track, "Sugar and Spice" and "I've Been Working" are absolute bops for the genre (also love that eerie synth solo in the latter song). As for "She's A Super Lady", it retains the high energy, even if it also starts to tickle my cheesometer by this point of the album. Besides, those sorts of songs always sound a little ridiculous when they're sung by someone who tried hard to promote his image as a "Ladies' Man" when everyone in the industry knew he was actually a closeted gay man all his life... I know, this shouldn't bear on a purely musical assessment... And I know it was not an easy time for gay artists who wanted to make it in said industry. But still... 🙄 I can't help feeling a lack of authenticity in the music that's displayed here. It's great that Vandross was writing his own songs, sure. He had navigated the music business for more than a decade before he recorded this debut (even helping David Bowie arrange *Young Americans*, interestingly enough). But it's hard taking some of those songs seriously when you know a little more about who the guy really was. Finally, the two or three tracks I have not mentioned yet are all uninteresting syrupy ballads that made that cheesometer of mine explode into a thousand pieces. You owe me one of those contraptions, Luther! I'm still giving a surprisingly benevolent grading to this album, though. Why? Well, because of the bops, and also because I feel this album represents the sort of African American pop / disco / funk / boogie that's objectively missing from the users list. It's certainly a better and livelier commercial eighties pop album album than the ones of Anita Baker or Bonnie Rait in the original list. Which reminds me... I should probably revisit my Chic and Earth Wind And Fire reviews there and bump them up to a somewhat higher grade. There's *never too much* variety in those sort of lists... 3.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 5 8.5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the production values and overall musicianship + 3.5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 112 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 118 (including this one) Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 262 ---- Émile, *quatre* nouveaux messages pour toi au dessus, du *Solid State Survivor* de Yellow Magic Orchestra au *Atrocity Exhibition* de Danny Brown
Never Too Much, A House is Not a Home, Don't You Know That?, Sugar and Spice. Full of really nice tracks. 4/5
Very smooth
I don't even know how to classify this exact type of R&B, but now I know that it was indeed missing in the original 1001 list. Thanks for the suggestion.
Nice enough
Cold af
The archetype of 80s soul/R&B. Slick, heavily produced, and non-threatening. Great album, if you're in the mood for it.