On the Rise

On the Rise is the album that The S.O.S. Band had been driving toward for their entire career. One of the most innovative R&B albums of the '80s, it was the result of the chance collaboration with a young and untested production team called Jam & Lewis. Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis had only recently defected from The Time, and this album goes to show the extent of the knowledge they absorbed while interning with Morris Day and Prince. The songs are as solid and gleaming as modernist skyscrapers, but they still somehow incorporate some of the earthiest and most physical basslines ever made. Jam & Lewis had figured out how to take the everlasting essence of hard funk music and at the same time make the setting feel utterly futuristic. “Tell Me If You Still Care,” “For You Love,” and the magnificent “Just Be Good to Me” weren't only the highlights of The S.O.S. Band’s career up to that point. Using these groundbreaking singles as a blueprint, Janet Jackson would go on to reinvent the sound of pop music in the second half of the decade.