Nightwatch

by

Kenny Loggins

Edit

Cleaning out my cassette collection I found this old favorite. I listened to it and felt deep emotions and a great uplifting. The music is masterful, inspired, and filled with joy. The words are simple but they are true. In Whenever I call you Friend (Stevie Nicks is super)- "In every moment there's a reason to carry on" -- "Sweet love's showin' us a heavenly light, never seen such a beautiful sight." In Wait a Little While -"Wait a little while to welcome what you're after; Give it the time to find its way to you

And soon as you no longer try, you'll turn and find it standing by your side - Come and get it, when you let it, it'll come to you."

I have to admit that I got this album mostly for "Whenever I Call You Friend" which is a track I enjoy a great deal and so I was a little surprised at the other tracks on this album as well. Prior to my getting this album my idea of Kenny Loggins was as an average rocker who contributes the ersatz pop rock track for movie soundtrack albums e.g. "Footloose", "I'm Alright" etc which I don't rate as much more than forgettable ear candy although I do like "Whenever ..." a great deal. The rest of "Nightwatch" was a little of a pleasant surprise as for the first time I've now heard a different side of Loggins. Most of the tracks here have some depth and with the jazz influences actually reminded me a lot of Gino Vannelli's work on "Brother To Brother" although to be fair Vannelli's work on that album is still far superior to this one and yet it made me appreciate Loggins more than before. The original version of "What A Fool Believes" before it was covered by The Doobie Brothers is also here and truth be told, although it is not as polished production-wise as the Doobie Brothers' version with the Michael McDonald vocal harmonies I actually prefer this the Loggins' version of the track. Overall the album has a nice flow to it and is definitely more than just those 2 tracks. The mlps design itself though is a disappointment because it hasn't been assembled as well as the many other mlps releases that I've seen out there being made up of cheap, thin cardboard that looks like it will come apart soon once the glue gets old. The sound quality though is pretty good and somewhat makes up for the disappointing mlps design and assembly. Also included is a 20-page booklet with all the lyrics in both English and Japanese.