Track Listing

1. What Can I Say To Make You Love Me
2. Hearsay
3. Lovers
4. Fake
5. Criticize
6. Never Knew Love Like This
7. Sunshine
8. Crying Overtime
9. When The Party's Over

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10916 in Music
• Released on: 2003-06-09
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued

Customer Reviews

Its Nothing But Hearsay
Finally, after years of waiting Alexander O'Neals biggest selling album has been brought back for people to once again enjoy. If You looking to party or to chill out - this album has it all.
Hearsay was first released in 1986 and is the follow up to the self titled Debut album.
This album gave O'Neal 1 top 10 hit and 3 top 30's.
Produced by the duo of Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, the sound of the 80's was captured on this one album which led to O'Neal selling out 8 straight nights at Wembley.

The Album kicks off with the first of 4 top 30 hits - What Can I Say to you love me - its a song which really gets the body moving and O'Neals voice shows us that he can sing as well on the funky numbers as on the ballads.
The song "Hearsay" is next with Alex venting his feelings about lies being told in a relationship and people trying to mess things up.
"The Lovers" is track 3. This another top tune.
Track 4 is the dancefloor smash - Fake. This is O'Neal at his best telling a woman how false she is.
It would now seem hard to follow "Fake up" but he does, with the top 5 hit - Criticize. "I'm fed up cos all you wanna do is critize" Lyrics from O'Neals anthem. His voice is top notch here and this album is good enough to buy on that song alone!

The second half of the album mellows out, and O'Neal shows the world that his music is the music of love.
Cherrelle duets on "Never Knew Love Like this" and then "Sunshine" Hits us. Fella's if you want words to write in a card for your loved one - this is the song to nick them from. "I cant go a day without my sunshine".

And if someone you love has left you "Crying Overtime" will be suitable for your emotions.

The Last Track is rightly named "When The Party's Over"
A Track which is suitable for this album.
One big party - slow dances and all!

If you like Soul Music - Get this album.
If your in love - get this album
If You Like the sound of the 80;s - get this album.

If you like music - get this album.

As the record lable. Tabu (which o'neal was on)motto told us
"The Earth has music for those who listen"

Breathtaking.

All True Classic
Following the success of his debut album, Alexander O’Neal capitalised on the emergence of the Minneapolis funk/soul sound, made popular by Prince, and reunited with James Harris and Terry Lewis for his second release. Being compared at the time to Luther Vandross and Freddie Jackson, O’Neal showed his versatility as a vocalist by demonstrating his talents with upbeat tracks like (What Can I Say) To Make You Love Me and slower love declaring ballads like Sunshine ‘I can’t go a day without my sunshine’ showing the maturity and passion of his lyrics and performance. What makes this album a joy to listen to is that each song is intertwined with a party scene monologue, for example the listener overhears a private conversation between 2 women discussing the rumour that Alex is seeing Kim, the basis being the intro to the album’s title track ‘it’s nothing but hearsay’. But what Alex also manages to accomplish is going one step further than some of his contemporaries, whereby gritting his teeth and going on the defensive to deliver the album’s raw tracks Fake and Criticize, which he co-wrote. He is then able to bring the amour back to the table with Crying Overtime and Never Knew Love Like This, in which sees him once again duet with label mate Cherrelle. O’Neal selfishly shows his vocal range on all of the cuts, in
particular The Lovers where he begins to sing using his silky baritone before climaxing the song with a soulfully passionate tenor pitch. The song writing and producing talents of duo James ‘Jam’ Harris and Terry Lewis are on display in fine glory, and one can understand why this pair went on to become two of the most successful writing duo’s in American music history. Their lyrics demonstrate abstract subtexts that fuse a relatively new sound for when this album was released ‘every night the tears fall from my eyes to wash away the loneliness’ gives the impression that these words not only came from the heart but also from experience. O’Neal performs each track in a personal style that feels as if he fully understands the message behind the logic. Being at slightly over 45 minutes in duration, the final track When The Party’s Over has the ability to suggest everything but that, leaving a lasting impression that Alex will be back! Alexander O’Neal infuses the edgy sound of soul/funk with a sexiness that makes women quiver and men buy the roses and book the restaurant table. His deliverance on this album is flawless, the only disappointment being that the album is only 9 tracks. This album spent 103 weeks in the UK album charts and spawned a remix album, but surprisingly failed to reach the coveted number 1 spot. Having recently been re-released on CD, Hearsay sounds as vibrant and entertaining today as it did 2 decades ago. In my opinion, it is one of the most under rated soul albums of all time.

Don't criticize this album !
I first heard this album when i was about 10 i think i copied it from a friend on to tape with Luther Vandross on the other side what a combination! I recently bought 'Hearsay' again and all the memories instantly came back to me. From the title track through to the singles 'Fake' is amazing (i'm contemplating doing a cover of it) and 'never knew love like this' is a toutching duet. These songs have certainly standed the test of time and it's clear to see where a lot of modern R&B artists have found their inspiraion.
This album is to men what girl power was to women. With songs conveying the everyday frustrations that come with relationships.
Simply a must have album in my oppinion.