Before After Daryl Hall Artist

{|Daryl Hall|} conducted his solo career largely concurrently with his work with {|John Oates|}, stepping outside the duo whenever they reached a creative or business crossroads. The first of these happened in the back half of the 1970s, when the suc... Read more

{|Daryl Hall|} conducted his solo career largely concurrently with his work with {|John Oates|}, stepping outside the duo whenever they reached a creative or business crossroads. The first of these happened in the back half of the 1970s, when the success of Sara Smile and Rich Girl paradoxically left {|Hall & Oates|} in a corner where they battled with their label and producer during the recording of {|Beauty on a Back Street|}. Frustrated, {|Hall|} took a busman's holiday and recorded the angular, arty {|Sacred Songs|} with {|King Crimson|} guitarist {|Robert Fripp|}. {|Hall & Oates|} incorporated many of the artistic innovations of {|Sacred Songs|} on such blockbusters as {|Voices|}, {|Private Eyes|}, and {|H2O|}, albums that made the duo the biggest hitmakers of the early 1980s. When that run concluded, {|Hall|} released {|Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine|}, a dense, psychedelic-infused album made with {|David A. Stewart|} of {|Eurythmics|} -- an album inspired by post-New Wave trends that did give {|Hall|} a hit in Dreamtime. Both {|Sacred Songs|} and {|Three Hearts|} are sampled heavily on {|Before After|}, a double-disc compilation covering the entirety of {|Daryl Hall|}'s solo career. Sequenced with a studious disregard for chronology, {|Before After|} uses the modernist pop as bracing contrasts with the smooth rock & soul that constitutes the rest of {|Hall|}'s career, including highlights from his acclaimed, long-running internet show Live from Daryl's House. The cumulative effect can downplay the appealing weirdness of the first two records, but that amounts to a fair portrait of {|Hall|}'s solo work: he worked out his experiments early, then returned to R&B for 1993's {|Soul Alone|}, a fine record that set the template for {|Can't Stop Dreaming|} and {|Laughing Down Crying|}. If there are few surprises in form, the overall strength of the material can come as a shock: {|Hall|} remained a strong craftsman into the 21st century and, as versions of {|Eurythmics|}' Here Comes the Rain Again and {|Todd Rundgren|}'s Can We Still Be Friends prove, an expert interpreter of material. At two-and-a-half hours, {|Before After|} is a bit lengthy, but taken on a cut-by-cut basis, each song serves as a testament to one of {|Hall|}'s skills, whether it's as a songwriter, singer, or recordmaker. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Less