Hall & Oates

In the late 70s and 80s, Darryl Hall and John Oates mined the intersections between funk, soul, pop, and rock and produced a string of really great songs. Here are two of my favorites:

"Adult Education" (1983) starts with a great guitar riff and then goes very atmospheric in an anthem about post high school life. The rhythm guitar is excellent and driving throughout. The keyboards are used sparingly for crechendo, much like brass is used in funk/soul. Creative use of echoing vocal cheers (evoking the cheerleader motif) punctuate the rhythms.



"Method of Modern Love" (1984) brings the keyboards more up front and farms a deep mid-tempo groove. This song features great chord progressions and Hall's beautiful smooth, high tenor vocals. The layering of the keyboards is also very pleasing. The best part is the rally starting about two thirds through where the vocal goes hyper-active and riffs off both the backing vocal and the rhythm track. 80s pop at its best.