Pointer Sisters - Break Out

"Dance Electric" is an expert El Lay simulation of Numan-noid cybernetics at least three years after the fashion; it's my favorite album track.

The four top fives are so omnipresent that I forget "I Need You" and "Baby Come and Get It" sandwiched them (and flopped).

"i need you" is absolutely gorgeous and may even be my favorite of all the singles. i know so much of the appeal of this album's tracks is in the squiggly synth trills and arpeggiators and other technological magic, but the understated approach to that one in particular (and to a lesser extent "easy persuasion"), more akin to their former hit "slow hand" but far from out of place on this record, really hits the spot for me: mellow but danceable, somber and pleading but with a twinkle of measured optimism resting on the shimmering bell tones. this is all before you even get to their vocal performances, which, oh my god. i want to go outside on a cool summer night and listen to it forever.

meanwhile it makes total sense to me that "baby come and get it" underperformed

Automatic, full stop. For all the automation and production, such an emotional tune

Quick vote for Automatic too, but, WOW they were special for a fair few. More great songs than most, for sure.

when i was 10: Jump

from my 20s and forever more: Automatic

Automatic is kind of the ultimate "bridge" song tempo-wise for a DJ

Ruth Pointer's android voice figuring out how to sing, "All I can manage to push from my lips/Is a stream of absurdities."

looking forward to revisiting this, especially that stacked opening trio. i remember preferring contact as an album though

"Dare Me" is a jam imo

So many greats. Jump by a nose

ahhh fuck I forgot Neutron Dance was on this! that was my favourite song for a looong time

it is kind of the ultimate closing-credits-of-an-Eddie-Murphy-movie song

Funny how "I'm So Excited" and "Neutron Dance" got stapled onto the album after movie appearances ("I'm So Excited" had already been a mid-level hit in 1982-1983).

As good as I think Automatic is, I have the opposite feeling for “neutron dance” and “hump” and “excited” all of which I never need to hear again

This was basically my favorite album ever for a year or so when I was tyke.

when I was dyke

I expect "Automatic" to run away with it and deservedly, but my heart's With "Jump" or "I Need You" or "Dance Electric" or "Baby Come and Get It."

Gotta be "Baby Come and Get It".

When this came out I was overwhelmed by the amount of hits that kept coming out.

But this has to be "Automatic".

Jellybean 12" mix if you've never heard it, got a lot of play in some freestyle sets I'd put together:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPrdUJahLVo

That C7sus4->C7sus->Cmaj dry clipped funk guitar riff is so good. I hate strats but they're so good for stuff like that.

all of my systems are down
down down down

I have the opposite feeling for “neutron dance” and “hump” and “excited”

i am so pathetic for laughing at this typo

“So shy” will always be their pinnacle imho but “automatic” is a close second

i should have made the poll 'second-favorite song on Pointer Sisters - Break Out after "Automatic"'

lol probably!

"slow hand" the pinnacle imho

"Neutron Dance" got stapled onto the album after movie appearances

"neutron dance" is on both versions of break out alfred

your camera looks through me
with its x-ray vision

"automatic" is a great lyric imo

Ask A Former Touring Drummer For The Pointer Sisters

By October of '84, "Neutron Dance" had hit number three, and things were getting seriously crazy. Every night, we'd hit the stage and be standing there in front of 1,500 wild, screaming fans. I remember this one show in Detroit, we were playing the Fox Theater, and it was so loud, I couldn't even hear Anita when she said, "Let's hit it, boys," which is the band's cue to launch into the "I'm So Excited"/"Jump (For My Love)" encore set. And it didn't let up for the entire 90 minutes we'd be out there. Man, it was insane.

"Neutron Dance" got stapled onto the album after movie appearances

"neutron dance" is on both versions of break out alfred

― american bradass (BradNelson), Thursday, June 27, 2019

my bad -- I was thinking of "I'm So Excited," also on So Excited!.

"jump" is such an incredible song i can't believe i'm not voting for it

I put in a vote for it because I want a strong second-place showing for it.

I love how in Thriller's wake these star albums became hit machines: Suddenly, Colour by Numbers, Eliminator, An Innocent Man.

We should poll those mini-Thrillers imo.

such a massive album, so many great jams, but the syncopation of the melody's rhythm in "jump" has been slaying me dead for decades, so "jump" it is

when that chorus hits, it's magic

Also, as I'm sure I've said four times on ILX already, probably my favorite middle 8 of any pop song.

no way to control it, my vote is totally automatic

or maybe it's totally neutron dance

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Voted Automatic because it’s my personal fave but have very fun memories of going to a Marshall’s store and seeing the ladies in the lingerie section start singing and get way into Jump when it came on the loudspeakers. Jump! For my love!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

lol

no way to control it

omg i didn't realize it would be that much of a landslide

poor "neutron dance"

Ruth Pointer's android voice figuring out how to sing, "All I can manage to push from my lips/Is a stream of absurdities."

As a kid, when Automatic was current, I thought she was singing "a stream of obscenities". Which seemed pretty edgy to me.

https://i.etsystatic.com/8378081/r/il/588568/888145835/il_1588xN.888145835_a8ff.jpg

SoapFetishCreations

110 sales
5 out of 5 stars
Pointer Sisters silver Boob-shaped Soap
$15.00

https://www.etsy.com/ie/listing/260432701/pointer-sisters-silver-boob-shaped-soap

was looking around for pictures of them in roller skates. i remember reading somewhere that they used to perform in '40s / '50s attire and go on stage in skates ? like a band was opening for them at the whiskey a-go go and it was in a memoir but i can't recall who it was and there don't appear to be any pictures of them in roller skates. but i did find this.

I don’t get it
What makes these boobs Pointer sisters boobs?

i mean

c'mon are you serious