Motivation - Motivation (1983)

With those aerobic clothes on the cover, the girls definitely look motivated – but they're not actually the group on the album, as Motivation is a tight little male soul sextet! The group has all the right funky currents to fit into the De-Lite Records label approach, along with some of the warmer mellow soul modes that groups like this were using to balance things out in the early 80s – which means that they hit some excellent harmonies on a few of the album's more laidback tracks. There's a really special sound to the record – one that's quality 80s soul, at a level that's much deeper than the dated image on the front – as you'll hear on the tracks "Give The Gift Of Music", "Please Don't Say No", "Crazy Daze", "Color Blind", and "Stop" – as well as vocal and instrumental versions of the title track "Motivation".