I know Prince did only two cuts on this one, "101" (excellent and worthy of Prince recording it himself) and "Cool Love" (funky but doesn't work for Sheena that well). Just wondering what people thought about this one overall. It's the only Sheena album and while I dig it, I find it really dated and Sheena seems out of sorts. Still something that Babyface and Sheena should put on their resume. Not that bad. Anyone really love or hate it?

As for Prince, I notice he is listed as producing the two tracks but they were written and had all instruments performed by Joey Coco. Is this another phony identity? It has to be, right? Just wondering.

VinnyM27 said:

Yeah, Joey Coco was another one of those names he used for writing songs for others.

I think like Christopher Tracy, it was a hint to a character in a upcoming movie...Graffiti Bridge, the original version anyway.

But back to Sheena...I'm about to listen to that one tonight! I'm going through all my stuff and found that in there...I really want to hear everysong and see how Prince songs fit in to the album.

Get back with me thoughts on it.

VinnyM27 said:

The album is called 'The Lover In Me'.

The pseudonym, Joey Coco, was adopted for a number of songs and projects including the eponymously titled Jill Jones album, 'Neon Telephone' (3 O'Clock). 'Baby Go Go (Nona Hendryx), 'You're My Love (Kenny Rogers), and 'Telepathy' (Deborah Allen).

101 rocks! I have a 12" remix too(not done by Prince, though) and it has some wicked guitar on it.

Cool Love is, well cool! I love the little bouncing sound that plays all the way through...Ah, genuis simplified and personified... Always reminds me of a Camille track for some reason.

BlurredEye said:

Yeah! Camille style all the way on that song. Very Sign O The TImes/Lovesexy style too.

After listening through the whole album tonight here are my thoughts...

Imagine how great if this album would of been a complete Prince production.

Some of the songs have that dated late eighties top 40 pop sound, and you know, Babyface, he's good, talented, but his and the others musical ideas are just like chasing Prince's ride!

The songs Prince contributed on this album show Prince as the leader at the time. It's the last of the great, wierd, inventive, super Funky, out there, unique and DARING musical ideas he would come up with.

Most of the other songs also are like TRYING to do that Prince sound ala whomever was doing which ever particular song. But they can't catch up. You have that slinky overproduced, mechanical yet safe contemporary sound, then BAM! 101 comes in with some wierd prruuuffgh then the beat and within the beat that wierd craawwwooo after the tight Camille snare and just the right sounds to capture the desperate sadness in that song. Brilliant over the others.

I didn't look at the tracklist and Cool Love suprised me and in a way relieved me that it was the next song because if it were a Babyface song, forget it, it would of been embarassing!

Cool Love is fabulous, I just had to repeat it again a couple of times. Made me think how well this Camille like song would of fit the original Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic project.

I will include in one of my MD compilations on "could of been" albums, fun to do and hear the flow.

Lyrically the songs, 101 and Cool Love are sharp contrast love songs, oposites, but fit together like a hand in glove. The flow is right.

Prince just kicks all the others asses. The last song, that slow song, oh man, that "bling", "ding" general MIDI sound, oh no, it just like, c'mon!!! But it smooths out and it's kind of nice, just that that was hard to follow.

Is the long version of 101 called the Uptown Mix? There was a 3" CD single containg two mixes of 101.

Sometimes,when an artist works with a bunch of different producers on an album,the results can be disastrous,a "too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen" situation that results in a mis-matched collection of songs,instead of a consistent,cohesive album that holds together.Happily,that's not the case with Sheena's 'Lover In Me' album.It's a strong late-80s dance/R&B/pop album with many highlights.More on that later.First,let's take a look at the tracklist and the producers for each song...




"No Depoit,No Return" (produced by LA and Babyface)
"The Lover In Me" (produced by LA and Babyface)
"Follow My Rainbow" (produced by LA and Babyface)
"Without You" (produced by Angela Winbush)
"If It's Meant To Last" (produced by Jellybean)
"Days Like This" (produced by LA and Babyface)
"One Love" (produced by LA and Babyface)
"101" (produced by Prince)
"Cool Love" (produced by Prince)
"Fire And Rain" (produced by Angela Winbush)


As you can see,those are all top-notch producers and songwriters.I like the LA and Babyface songs,even if their sound was very formulaic at that point (their early 90s productions began to show more diversity).The track "One Love" really should have been a single,it's fast,catchy and hypnotic.The hook-filled chorus makes it one of LA and Face's strongest productions.Even more surprising are the two tracks that Angela Winbush contributed.These songs are more soulful than anything Sheena has ever done! The two Prince songs are excellent.Curiously,the credits say that these songs were written by "Joey Coco" but produced by Prince.I wonder what that's all about?...lol...anyway,I love "Cool Love",it's sexy and catchy,with fun,playful lyrics that could only be written by our Prince...


"pardon me,boy,did you say that you were leaving? I hope this reason's better than the one you gave before"

"didn't I make you happy everytime that we made love? Didn't I make your stomach pound,knock you out in every round?"


for those of you who don't have this album,hunt it down!

btw,I remember when this album came out,People magazine gave it a really harsh review.I'll never forgot the opening sentence of that scathing assessment...

"Anyone who likes to see filet mignon ground into hamburgers or mazaratis used to plow snow,may like this record,in which Sheena Easton does a convincing imitation of a fourth-rate R&B singer"

And wait,there's more...


"...maybe she got turned around by her collaboration with Prince,in which, during the "U Got The Look" video,she groveled around in a fashion that would have been humilating to any non-talented wannabee,let alone an artist of Sheena's stature and skills"

DavidEye, I admire your attention to detail and effort in writing out a cool review and detailed info on songs etc.!

That one Cool Love lyric really stood out for me, just stopped me in me tracks, "didn't I make you happy everytime that we made love? Didn't I make your stomach pound,knock you out in every round?"!!!

The whole Joey Coco thing I think was similar to the Christopher Tracy credit. I believe it might have been a hint drop on a future movie he was working on.

By that time, '88, Prince was already writing out ideas and characters for his next movie, Graffiti Bridge and doing tracks for Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic.

I wouldn't be suprised if the movie was going to be called "Rave Unto The Joy Fantastic" or even "The Dawn"!

It also remeinded me as I read the Lover In Me production credits for the song, that they were produced by Prince but written by Joey Coco.

It hit me to then, me, I'm sure others might have seen it too, that for 1999's Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic, that songs were written by O+> and produced by Prince...! Which is what O+> was, another alter ego thing character for Prince ala Jamie Starr and Joey Coco, Camille.

I listened to the whole album that night and its ok but the soundalikes for "The Lover In Me" are annonying. Prince's tracks are hot and on the stronger half of the album ("The Lover In Me", "Fire And Rain", "Follow My Rainbow", "101", "Cool Love" but not in that order). I guess it depends what your taste is. I just thought they tried to over do the New Jack on the album, which was often a problem for R&B(ish) albums back then. They have no good idea/track ("The Love In Me") and then try to do it over and over...Here was a review for the album I wrote a while ago (wow, a few years ago!) on Amazon.

"Sheena Easton has had a big problem throughout her career. Her sound has never been determined. Not that categories are good, but she has never really stuck with one thing and it wasn't do to her music evolving, but it's more just letting producers do the work. This album pretty much clarifies that. It's an R&B dance album in the tradition of Babyface, and a few others, in the late eighties. At this time he was also making records for Karen White and Pebbles, and they all pretty much sounded alike. It become kind of monotonous and truly the only records that did work in that time period might have been his own record that he sang on.
"The Lover In Me" is kind of a mess of productions scattered to make one album. Prince's eccentric organ sound on "101" is a funky little highlight of giddiness, but "Cool Love" had no reason to be made with it's boring eighties dance cheese quality. The LAFace highlight is the single "The Lover In Me" with sexy vocals and wild percussion, but with a lame midtempo similar track in "No Deposit, No Return" it feels like a fluke of a Top Ten Hit. Now when she shines, it's on ballads like the light grooves of "Fire And Rain". Very bluesy in an eighties way and very sensual and cool. Also, "Follow My Rainbow" is upliftingly beauty in her desireful vocals with touches of nice piano and all.

In all, it's kind of a mess of "hip" radio polluting R&B of the eighties. It's very tricky as well as not really appealing in this day and age. It's the most dated sound there is that just doesn't click anymore. Some tracks like "101", the title track and the ballads are truly great for various reasons, but the rest is album filler. I must saw, though I do like it better than Pebbles Hits album that I got a while back and Sheena feels the music, so it's OK. Only for hard core Sheena lovers though."

The only thing I change my mind on is "Cool Love". It's very funky! What was I thinking?

Isnt the title 'The LOVER in me"?

LaMont said:

yep, i think it was a typo

"but "Cool Love" had no reason to be made with it's boring eighties dance cheese quality"



Say what???

Recently discovered "Sugar Walls"...

*SMELLY-JELLY*

DavidEye said:

I know, I know. What was I thinking!

I actually remember when, as a means of promoting the album (I guess), she used the title track as an advertisment for some fitness club. It might've been Bally's Jack La Lane or something. Whatever happened to her artistic integrity?