Hall And Oates - Method Of Modern Love

(RCA, 1984)

You’ve gotta be a pretty sad chump to get your jollies ragging on Hall and Oates in 2009, but it’s impossible not to pile on when faced with ghastly, Pride Of The ’80s™ productions like “Method of Modern Love.” Whatever amusement one derives from noting the chorus’s influence on a Wu Tang Clan track (the sung-spoken “M-E-T-H-O-D”) is soon crushed under the weight of Hall’s oversinging and the garish, synth- and drum-machine-packed arrangement – the whole thing comes off like a cruise-ship band with a wrongheaded understanding of early hip-hop and an unlimited budget run amok in the studio. Terrible. Dudes were taking chances with their sound, yes, but this baffling, annoying single is prime evidence that some chances AREN’T WORTH TAKING. The silver lining is that the 7” at least has the decency to chop two minutes off the LP version’s runtime.