B.B. King - Six Silver Strings (1985)

My local public library had this LP in their collection when I was growing up. I remember my dad checking it out once but had no recollection of anything else about it except him saying, "Yeah, this one isn't too good." And now I'm revisiting what the cover proclaims to be "B.B. KING'S 50TH ALBUM." (The sticker on the cover should be a giant warning sign of the lack of inspiration contained in the album right there.) So how is it? Well, turns out dad was right after all. The 1980s were not a good decade for most legacy artists and here's some solid proof. I will say, however, that on a few of these songs the keyboards are tastefully restrained and the drum sounds seem to come from a real non-electronic drum set. But then there's the rest of it, which practically screams "1985" and is as slick and phoned-in a production by a major artist as you can imagine. "Into the Night" sounded so ridiculously much like it was recorded for Beverly Hills Cop or something, until Wikipedia informed me it's actually from another 80s buddy cop film. The intro to the cover of "Big Boss Man" on here is hilarious, an obvious, limp-dick attempt to rip off "Billie Jean." And oh don't you worry, that's not the only cover song on this 8-song, 33-minute album. The version of "In the Midnight Hour" on here is about as uninspired and lame as you can possibly get. But perhaps most offensively, for an album titled Six Silver Strings and with a motherfucking guitar neck on the cover, it comes up considerably short in the area of actual guitars. Sure, B.B. (or somebody who was in the studio at the time at least) will throw us a bone with a brief solo or two a song, but that's about it. And all we're left with then are the robot drums and Jan Hammer synths to take us away to places we'd rather not go.
https://open.spotify.com/album/2SnuNYRUrn9MFDWT9FHbsL