I had some free time on my hands this past week, so I decided to work on another cassette conversion; this one's a very special treat for some of you! What I have is another one of these obscure mid 80's Electro-Funk albums that really didn't receive a whole lot of promotion when it was immediately released, but regardless...if you're a huge fan of Prince & The Revolution's work on 1984's 'Purple Rain,\" or Vanity 6's 1982 debut album on Warner Brothers...oh man, this recorded piece of work shouldn't be misunderstood! From 1985 on Conceited Records, a subsidiary production label from Motown, here is Lushus Daim & The Pretty Vain's sole album pressed in the music biz called, \"More Than You Can Handle.\"
Right off the bat...I'm sure some of you are already questioning about the history on this long forgotten mid 80's musical act, but here's a quick synopsis...Motown was easily trying to bank on some fast cash for another Vanity in Los Angeles, hence resulted themselves into getting their foots tied in the whole '85 Minneapolis Electro-Funk trend of Prince protégés; Ta Mara & The Seen, Jesse Johnson's Revue, André Cymone...you get the idea. Likewise, even though some of Lushus Daim's songs from this album did spark some buzz on 'Soul Train,' along with also managing to chart at #52 on Billboard's Hot R&B Albums in November of 1985...it just sadly fell out of proportion through word of mouth altogether.
Now hear me out, there's still not a whole lot of background information floating around about Lushus Daim's brief stint on the Motown label except mainly opinion and speculations; like, one rumor I have heard is that The Pretty Vain wasn't actually a real band to begin with...just a name conjured up by her producer Leon F. Sylvers III. However I will honestly tell you that is somewhat untrue, because some online blogger in the past had given us an update saying that it was in fact a \"real\" band; also stating that Lushus Daim is now happily married, and privately sings with her own three children in Los Angeles...like seriously, who would even make up that story right!
On a side note, one interesting fact you should know about this album is the woman on the cover...NOT Lushus Daim...but a pretty good stand in who was rumored to have been nicknamed, Poney. To somewhat confirm this for yourselves, just look up some images on the web of Lushus Daim, and you'll notice that it isn't the one on the cover; very similar features, but the face just isn't entirely an exact match. Now, I'm not saying she didn't sing on these songs like Rob Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan of Milli Vanilli, but at the time during the mid 1980s, this was kind of the norm in the industry to have a model photographed for your own music; Freestyle artist Debbie Deb easily comes to mind.
Furthermore if you want my honest opinion, Lushus Daim & The Pretty Vain's \"More Than You Can Handle\" is one interesting piece of 80's music history; like, it is an oddity from Motown that its venture for making any sort of revenue, was single handily best served by fans of Prince's Electro-Funk sound coming from outside Minneapolis. Ergo, all you have to do is look at the Oberheim styled bodoni font and go: \"Oh yeah, Motown was so capitalizing on Prince's 'Purple Rain;' like, no doubt!\"
For your enjoyment, I've recorded both sides of the rare cassette version of this album to the best of my ability, so, here is the tracklist starred with my most personal favorite tracks:
