SHARON O'NEILL - FOREIGN AFFAIRS (1983, CBS)
Sharon O'Neill - vocals, keyboards
Brent Thomas - guitars

Background
This is the album which finally put Sharon on the map as an international artist, and was her first real foray into polished melodic AOR. Sharon first came to the attention as a young gifted singer/songwriter pianist in New Zealand. Originally from Nelson she moved to Christchurch to further her musical aspirations and featured as an up and coming artist on a TV talent quest/show back in the mid-late seventies. Her 3 earlier albums were more middle of the road efforts though they were high on melody. Several songs like 'Lucks On Your Table', 'You Take The Sailor From The Sea', 'Asian Paradise' and 'Words' were all reasonably successful in her homeland. However, by 1982 Sharon and her then husband Brent Thomas decided to try their luck over in Australia. As luck would have it, her label CBS gave her the big push.

The Songs
'Foreign Affairs' from 1983 was produced in LA by John Boylan (ie: Boston), and features a veritable lineup of who's who in the LA session scene. Mike Boddicker, Tommy Funderburk, Carmen Grillo, Karla Bonoff, Tom Kelly, Mike Baird, Andrew Gold, Marcy Levy, Don Henley and Timothy B Schmit all put performances on here .. and it shows. Great songs enhanced by a rich production. AOR featherweights (and I mean that nicely) like 'Danger', 'Radio Lover' and the fantastic pomp of 'Hearts On The Run' stand out. The more urgent sounding tracks like 'Maxine' and 'Losing You' (also redone on the 'Edge Of Winter' album) were the ones which initally got airplay if I recall.

In Summary
A pretty easy CD to get down under, but the CD packaging is a bit underdone. The follow up albums 'Danced In The Fire' and 'Edge Of Winter' are great too, but this one has something the others don't, that early 80's AOR feel.

URL: www.sharononeill.com

Track Listing:
01 Danger
02 Maxine
03 One Of A Crowd
04 Radio Lover
05 Kids In Our Town
06 Losing You
07 I've Got You To Thank
08 Take The Fall
09 Hearts On The Run
10 All The Way Down

Related Articles:

O'Neill, Sharon - 1983 Foreign Affairs

O'Neill, Sharon - 1990 Edge Of Winter

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Posted by gdazegod on August 03, 2005 · 5 Comments · 1585 Reads ·