Middle Man (album)
| Middle Man | ||||
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| Studio album by Boz Scaggs | ||||
| Released | April 1980 | |||
| Recorded | 1979 at Studio 55 (Los Angeles, CA); Sunset Sound and Cherokee Studios (Hollywood, CA). | |||
| Genre | Blue-eyed soul | |||
| Length | 41:27 | |||
| Label | Columbia | |||
| Producer | Bill Schnee | |||
| Boz Scaggs chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Smash Hits | 5/10 |
Middle Man is the ninth album by Boz Scaggs, released on Columbia Records in 1980. Scaggs re-hired the members of the band Toto as session musicians, and shared song-writing credits with them. He re-embraced the commercial rock appeal of Silk Degrees (1976).
The album reached #8 in the Billboard 200 album chart, and two singles reached the Billboard Hot 100: "Breakdown Dead Ahead" at #15, and "Jojo" at #17.
Writing for Smash Hits in 1980, David Hepworth described Middle Man as an "impeccably tasteful collection of sophisticated white soul" that was "useful as background music in the more sedate kind of nite spot". Acknowledging that the album was "well done", Hepworth noted that Scagg's previous albums were "thrilling as well as perfectly formed". Hepworth went on to say that the album sounded as though "they designed the sleeve first and then made the record to go in it".
Allmusic's retrospective review commented that the album "caps off the decade with equal nods to [Scaggs's] '70s hitmaking formulas and the newer, shinier production techniques of the coming decade." They made a point of noting the album's repeated imitation of then-popular fads, while at the same time opining that these imitations were successful.
All songs written by David Foster and Boz Scaggs, except where noted.
Side One
Side Two
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