It must have been a heady, confusing time for Lionel Richie in 1981. He had been the ballad voice of the Commodores, scoring hits with personal love songs like "Still," "Three Times A Lady," and "Easy." He then wrote and helped produce two of the 1980s' biggest hits, Kenny Rogers' "Lady" and his duet with Diana Ross, "Endless Love." Richie's melodic but dated 1982 debut bridged those single-song solo successes to his career-defining, top selling 1984 LP, "Can't Slow Down."

The choice to go solo was slow, painful, and reluctant; Richie's voice would compete on the radio with college friends he called "my brothers...my second family" in the liner notes. On "Wandering Stranger," a touching but overlong ballad with an odd Joe Walsh solo, Richie sings what might have been a plea to his longtime friends: "Oh I know I'm hurting you/but please try to understand/my peace is all I'm after..."

Richie took but what he needed from the group's signature sound: two lush, dramatic ballads, "Truly" and "You Mean More To Me," slick, drum-programmed R&B like "Tell Me" (background vocals by tennis star Jimmy Connors) and the pretty "You Are," a touch of country-soul with "My Love," Rogers on background vocals. He received support on these from Commodores arranger James Anthony Carmichael and Gene Page, leaving his remaining bandmates their funk slammers and air-tight soul harmonies while trying to replicate then-hot R&B stars Luther Vandross, Jeffrey Osborne, even Maurice White on "Round and Round." (Ironically, the Commodores' hard southern R&B of "Brick House" and "Too Hot To Trot" have aged better than much of Richie's 80s-style production here.)

Despite the songs here only beginning his mammoth 1980s singer/songwriter success, Richie proved nothing here he hadn't shown with the Commodores' tighter musicianship. He was a superb melody writer and arranger, an expressive vocalist if schmaltzy lyricist, whose specialty was the sweet, sentimental love ballad. The best songs on "Lionel Richie" are heard in better company on his "Truly" love song collection (including Commodores' tracks) or his "Back To Front" semi-best of, leaving this first solo step an extra step for casual fans.

Lionel Richie had no problem switching from the mighty Commodores to being a solo artist. Here, he does an unbelievably remarkable job with such hits as "Truly", "My Love", and other tunes such as the eerie "Wandering Stranger" and the opening "Serves You Right". And "You Are" is a wonderful one, not really displayed on Richie's compilations very much. LIONEL RICHIE is probably, in my book, one of the best R&B albums of the 1980s, and I highly recommend it.

In Lionel Richie's first album since his departure from the Commodores, he showed why he had become the undisputed leader of that classic '70s group. While the "softer side" dominates this and all of his solo efforts, it is a high-quality softer side for sure.

I am not overall a "dance music" person, but I can't help but tap my feet to such catchy numbers as "Serves You Right" and "Tell Me". Great uptempo stuff. "My Love" sounds very much like a vintage Commodores' ballad, and "Truly" is one of the beautiful love songs of its time. "Round And Round" is another fine song on this effort. But to me, the best song is the forgotten "You Are", which to this day is one of my very favorite Lionel hits. Pleasant mid-tempo track with beautiful lyrics.

The album weakens just a bit with the last two ballad tracks, the last one ("Just Put Some Love In Your Heart") being less than 2 minutes long. Clearly, one more uptempo track would have helped at this point. Nonetheless, this album was just the beginning of about 5 hugely successful years in Lionel Richie's solo career. For sure, he got off to a very fine start here. And quite obviously, the Commodores were never the same without him.

I wish Lionel and the boys (Commodores) would do a reunion tour, but until then, I'll just play this cd. This was his first solo project and by far the best.

In 1981, Lionel Richie had just left the Commodores, and would go on to be a huge solo artist for most of the decade. All three of his albums of that era are nothing short of great, but they're all a little different. This is the most funk sounding of them all, yet interestingly, also probably the "softest" -- likely because pop love songs were huge in the early 80's.

1. Serves You Right -- Pop/funk tune which is the closest sounding on the album to an old-fashioned Commodores song.

2. Wandering Stranger -- The first of the slow ballads begins here, also sounding a bit like his old band. Piano based and pretty love song, it's okay, but I prefer Lionel's melodic ballads that he'd do more of later (i.e. "Stuck On You").

3. Tell Me -- Another uptempo pop tune that wasn't a hit and sounds like it could've come from a few years earlier. Though the subject isn't exactly uncommon (deciding whether or not to stay with his girl, wanting her to 'tell him' is she loves him) it's a great underrated effort.

4. My Love -- Tuneful, slightly uptempo love song that sounds more like an 80's pop ballad. Minor hit that deserved all the airplay it got.

5. Round and Round -- Funky mid tempo pop song about being happy in love. It wasn't a hit but is good enough to have been.

6. Truly -- Quiet and slow 'devoted in love' song that went on to become a huge hit. Though it does veer towards sappy, it's pretty and pop enough to be listenable, but I prefer "My Love" over this.

7. You Are -- The true gem of the album. Another semi hit that is a great 80's sounding melodic pop/rock/dance tune. No matter what kind of music you like, you'd have to be a dork not to love this happy, singalong song.

8. You Mean More to Me -- The piano balladry is back. This is a good but not great ballad, again sounding like the Commodores.

9. Just Put Some Love in Your Heart -- Quiet ballad that is touching but very short and a little too sappy.

Overall, this is a pretty good album. "Can't Slow Down" will always be my favorite, but this isn't far behind. I think it could've benefitted from another couple upbeat tunes (5 out of 9 songs are ballads, many of which are very slow and soft). I'd recommend this if you like pop-based soul or 80's music. However, I think this has an 'across the board' appeal. I like it, and I'm usually more into rock, especially from the same era (i.e. Journey, Def Leppard, Eddie Money).