Lakeside - Power (1987/2022)

Produced by band guitarist Stephen Shockley, Power was Lakeside's last nationally charting album. Issued during the waning years of R&B bands, it has healthy heaping of both funk cuts and slow jams. The opening track, "Relationships," written by onetime Prince & the Revolution bassist Brownmark, was a Top 24 R&B single in the spring of 1987. Still, it's the LP's ballads that left the most lasting impressions. The crystalline "To Be Your Lover" remains a heart-melter almost two decades after its release and was curiously never released as a single, despite receiving massive radio play. The other standout ballad, "Bullseye," was a Top 33 R&B hit during the summer of 1987. Former Slave member Steve Arrington's wife, India Arrington, co-wrote the inspiring, poppin' title track which sports the lyric: "What makes you better than the roaches on the wall/Until you get up from the bottom/You'll both have to crawl." "Bullseye" appears on The Best of Lakeside [Sequel] and Galactic Grooves: The Best of Lakeside.