Billy Ocean - Love Zone [Violet UK Import]

Billy Ocean was at the very top of his game on Love Zone, the 1986 album that topped the US R&B chart, pressed here on limited violet vinyl as a UK import.

The Trinidad-born, London-raised singer had already broken through with Suddenly, but Love Zone took things further. Recorded at Battery Studios in London with producers Barry Eastmond and Wayne Brathwaite, the album reached number two in the UK and number six on the Billboard 200, going double platinum in the United States along the way.

It opens with When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going, the irresistible single first heard on the soundtrack to The Jewel of the Nile, co-written by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. It hit number one in the UK and number two in the US. There'll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry) gave Ocean his second US number one, a velvet-lined ballad that showed off the tenderness in his voice, while the title track Love Zone added another American top ten hit with a smooth, after-dark groove.

Across nine songs, glossy mid-eighties production meets Ocean's warm soul delivery, a combination that still feels made for dancing and swooning in equal measure.

For anyone who grew up with these songs on the radio, this violet pressing is a fine way to bring them home.