David Foster

The instrumental by mega producer from his self-titled album hit the Top 15 in 1985, following the number one success of 's production of , also from the film . 's work overshadowed larger-than-life producers who came before him -- , who was signed to a label as a vocalist before his stellar career with and , as well as , who was produced by when he released the disc. One would think could have launched himself further into the mainstream given his tremendous success -- or the fact that, unlike , he actually had a hit with in 1973, the Top Ten An instrumental of that classic would have lent itself well to this recording featuring a bevy of name session players from to the horn section from the group appearing on the tune The handsome producer stares out of the cover of this album, and he certainly has the look, the drawback here being that it's difficult for the mass audience to get a handle on an album of mostly instrumentals. is beautiful, while has elegance, but without balance it becomes too much of a good thing, all high-tech frosting when some of the producer's famous vocalist friends/clients would have lifted the project to a different level. Imagine 's computers, which write their own , coming up with instrumental music, and that's pretty much what you'll find here. Cool as ice and at times soulless, there's no disputing it is well-crafted and listenable. But outside of on helping out with backing vocals on the -sounding the album plays like a movie soundtrack rather than an album that contains movie music: is a very nice conclusion to the disc, and it is all first class. Maybe with a future re-release, can put voices and lyrics to some of the instrumental tracks and realize the potential in these grooves. ~ Joe Viglione