Album Notes

Doing it is good.
Doing it for a long time is impressive.
Doing it for love is sublime.
With their sublime new album, Do It For Love - their first new set of studio material since 1997's Marigold Sky -- Daryl Hall and John Oates have made some of the best, most deeply felt music of their lives. Do It For Love is an album in the same winning rock 'n soul tradition as Hall & Oates' finest, most enduring work, like 1973's classic Abandoned Luncheonette, 1978's ambitious Along The Red Ledge, 1980's compelling Voices, 1982's beloved H20 and 1990's intimate Change of Seasons. This is heartfelt, vital music that beautifully reflects the shared musical passion that first brought Daryl Hall and John Oates together back in Philadelphia more than thirty years ago. And it's that same passion that keeps them going to this day.
"We're absolutely doing it for love," says Daryl Hall. "Yes, we're in business and like to make a living, but I don't think it's possible to do it as long as we've been doing it without loving it. You have to love it. And it shows onstage. Every night we get up there and we're smiling away, and the audience is smiling away. We mean it. What we do, it's all real."
"I believe the feeling that underpins this recording has a lot to do with two men who are feeling good about what they're doing and why they're doing it," explains John Oates, who recently released his own fine debut solo album Phunk Shui. "It's a testament to the fact that passion for one's work doesn't have to diminish with experience."
Do It For Love - released on February 11 - kicks off fittingly with "Man On A Mission," an infectious and soulful statement of purpose. The album that follows this strong opening suggests that Hall & Oates -- the most successful duo in all of rock history -- are indeed men on a mission.
"I think our mission now is to get it out there and to be honest," Hall says. "The mission is to get outside the box. It's a very homemade kind of record. I think we followed our own instinct rather than listen to other people's suggestions." I think it's really a culmination of all the different stylistic directions we've gone in, and pulling it all together and focusing it in one place. It's a very organic record, it's emotional, it's got soul, it's got great songs and melodies - all the things that people think of when they think of Hall & Oates are very much in evidence here."
Do It For Love is a vivid reminder of everything the duo does best, and proof that they remain at the peak of their powers. In a way, these two have found a way to take the important lessons they learned from their soulful heroes - like The Temptations and Curtis Mayfield - and passing them into a new century. Do It For Love is titled after the song that became an unlikely #1 Adult Contemporary hit. It was originally included on a compilation of largely greatest hits released in conjunction with Hall & Oates well-received episode of the VH1 series Behind The Music. Thanks in part to a grass roots push by manager Brian Doyle and some key support for Hall & Oates' dedicated fans who requested the song around the country, "Do It For Love" became a major radio hit, without the standard big push by a major label.
The surprise success of "Do It For Love" brought a whole new energy to Hall & Oates 2002 tour dates - including a successful summer run of concerts with the duo's long time friend and associate Todd Rundgren.
"It does make a difference," Hall says of the positive reception to the single. "We just have a certain sense of vindication about ourselves. When we play live, we see what people feel. To have that transferred to the record world, it's just great - and it's a thrill to be back on the radio again."
John Oates agrees totally. "Having a hit does give an edge of excitement to the proceedings and career in general," he says. "When you work and believe as hard as we do having the business and the "world" validate the effort is a good feeling. For me the sessions were all about picking and choosing from a lot of input from some very talented collaborators and the extended Hall & Oates musical family and yet keeping the trademark sound that we've developed over the years."
For all its organic spontaneity, the Do It For Love album developed over the course of a few years. Initial sessions were held in London over two years ago and found Hall & Oates working with producer Brian Rawling and some of his in-demand team of writers and producers responsible for numerous hits for artists like Cher and Enrique Iglesias. The overseas location had its advantages. While recording in West London, Hall remembers cutting his vocals while looking out at one of Henry the Eighth's old oak trees. However, for assorted reasons, Hall & Oates eventually took an extended break from recording, before ultimately going back into Hall's studio in upstate New York for sessions that found the duo largely re-recording what they done and recording new material. As they did so, they were working closely with their band, including longtime bassist and producer T-Bone Wolk, their returning Voices-era drummer Mickey Curry, as well even new associates like keyboard great David Sancious, know for his work with Peter Gabriel, Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen.
One exciting participant in Do It For Love was Todd Rundgren - another soulful Philly rock legend who produced Hall & Oates' trippy 1974 album War Babies and played guitar on 1978's Along The Red Ledge. With Rundgren, Hall & Oates became a power trio for a completely inspired cover of New Radical's "Someday We'll Know," complete with a lyrical change that's sure to warm the heart of Philly music lovers of a certain age. For John Oates, "`Someday We'll Know' was a song that I always heard as a cross between what Todd does and what we do. It's a perfect vehicle for a reunion of old mates."
Another highlight of Do It For Love is "Forever For You," the decidedly romantic first single from the album. As Hall notes, "I think `Forever For You' is first of all just a great song. John came up with the germ of that one and then Paul Barry and the guys in England sort of took over and made a truly fantastic song. Me, I just sang it well. It's one of my favorite vocals ever. It's just an emotive, emotional performance. I meant it and I think that it shows."
The gifted Hall delivers another one of his finest vocals ever on the sexy, driving "Getaway Car." "I really like "Getaway Car," says Hall of the song. And I can be a little objective about it because I didn't write it. "Billy Mann -- who co-writes with us sometimes -- co-wrote that song with someone else. I found out the song had been cut before but to me nobody got that song. I said, `That is my song.'"
John Oates, meanwhile, shines in his own right, especially on "Love In A Dangerous Time," a moving song that he first appeared on his recent solo album. "Daryl really liked that one so we re-cut it with a fresh approach," Oates says. "Though I wrote the lyrics in 1991 and was thinking about the AIDS crisis, they really resonate with what is going on in the world today. Isn't that the definition of timeless?"
Yes, it is, and so too is Do It For Love, an album that's beauty seems timeless and yet timely - a masterpiece that defines everything that you've ever loved about Daryl Hall and John Oates. And that's saying a lot since Hall & Oates has long been a defining group for those who love rock music with soul and soul music that rocks, not to mention pop music that really pops. So by all means, check out Do It For Love. Do it now. Do it for love.