Apparently performing on his addictively watchable web show Live From Daryl’s House has had an impact on Daryl Hall.
He returns with a crisp, uncharacteristically loose sound on “Talking to You (Is Like Talking to Myself),” the lead single from the Hall and Oates star’s forthcoming fifth solo recording, Laughing Down Crying. That’s in keeping with the friendly, free-form performances that populate Live From Daryl’s House, which recently won a 2010 WEBBY Award in the variety category.
Hall retains every bit of the pop-song finesse that helped Hall and Oates to a truckload of hits back then, and his voice sounds surprisingly resilient after all of these years. The compact verse, in particular, recalls the joys of 1980’s Voices, the duo’s first foray into a melding of doo-wop, soul and new wave.
But there’s something more approachable now, something a world away from the synthesized urban pop that helped make Hall and Oates a signature act of the 1980s.
That makes this both a welcome return to form for Daryl Hall – he hasn’t put out a solo studio effort in more than 10 years – and something brand new.
Laughing Down Crying, set for release on September 27 via Verve/Forecast, is available for preorder through iTunes now. Hall was joined in the studio by co-producers Greg Bieck (Jennifer Lopez, Destiny’s Child, Ricky Martin) and Paul Pesco; the late T-Bone Wolk, Hall and Oates’ long-time bassist, also worked on the tracks “Lifetime of Love,” “Wrong Side of History” and “Problem With You” from Laughing Down Crying. Wolk, a collaborator with Daryl Hall for three decades, had also worked with Billy Joel, Carly Simon and Elvis Costello.
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