With the departure of lead singer Bob McBride and founding keyboard player Paul Hoffert, Lighthouse slimmed down to a mere nine piece outfit for "Can you feel it". In came sax player and vocalist Dale Hillary, Hoffert not being directly replaced. It was though the absence of Hoffert which was the more significant, such had been his input to previous albums in terms of song- writing and arrangements.
Ralph Cole and Skip Prokop write all the songs here with the exception of Dale Hillary's "No more searching". They do not however write as a team, the tracks working out as roughly alternating between them.
The
general feel of the album is that it is under produced and arranged.
The brass and strings on which the band's sound has
leaned so heavily are largely anonymous and underemployed here. "Same
train" for example is a decent song with a pleasant
melody, but it feels understated and undistinguished. "Magic's in the
dancing" is a very ordinary song, but does contain some fine
electric viola played by Don DiNovo on his unusual 5 string viola. The
albums did produce a further hit single "Pretty lady". This
extremely catchy pop song will sound frustratingly familiar to anyone
who hears it. It one of those songs you recognise but have
no idea who it was by.
