Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff have selected what we believe to be the 100 Most Dynamic Debut Albums Ever Made, representing a varied cross-section of genres, styles and time periods. Click “Next Album” below to explore each album or view the full album index here.
SHEENA EASTON | Take My Time
EMI (1981) | Listen Below
Selected by Quentin Harrison
Scottish chanteuse Sheena Easton first came to public notice with her appearance on the BBC television program The Big Time. The show followed Easton, an aspiring university student (and vocalist), attempting to net a recording contract from EMI, which she did. The subsequent recording that came out of this was Take My Time, piloted by Christopher Neil. It hit shop shelves at the top of 1981 in the U.K.― America followed not long after, though it was retitled here as Sheena Easton.
Easton worked within a similar vein to her predecessors Olivia Newton-John, Linda Ronstadt and Karen Carpenter, women that had made names for themselves by fearlessly recording in varying sonics at different points in their respective careers. And like them, Easton possessed a voice that could tackle anything. But, unlike those women, Take My Time staged itself as an enterprising sound collage where all of her artistic dabbling transpired in one space, not just on a handful of tracks.
There were the album's record-breaking singles of course, “Modern Girl” and “9 to 5 (Morning Train).” Both yielded a bit of danceable rock swing that played complementary to the light radio R&B of “So Much in Love,” the ballsy bar rock stunner “Prisoner” and the delicate, airy sweep of “Calm Before the Storm.” Take My Time, an expertly crafted, exquisitely sung pop debut made Easton a swift power player in the pop pantheon of the aforementioned Newton-John, Ronstadt and Carpenter.
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