Bunny Rugs had been with Third World for 19 years when he recorded his first solo project, Talking to You, which wasn't a radical departure from his work with that popular band. Best known for its 1978 remake of Gamble Huff's Philadelphia soul classic Now That We Found Love, Third World had a reputation for being more R&B-minded than a lot of other reggae bands -- in the U.S., many of the people who bought Third World's albums were R&B fans who didn't necessarily know a lot about reggae but had a casual interest in it. So it comes as no surprise that Talking to You doesn't cater to reggae's hardcore. A diverse effort, this decent to excellent release ranges from the apolitical lovers rock of Gloria and Hearts on Fire and the more socio-political reggae of War, War, War and Desmond Dekker's Shanty Town (one of the best known reggae gems of the early 1970s) to the outright R&B of That Feeling, Nowhere to Run, and That's How I Feel. The CD's R&B selections, in fact, point to the fact that if Rugs (who also pleases on remakes of Now That We Found Love and Ben E. King's Stand by Me) had pursued a career in R&B instead of reggae, he might have been a major R&B star. But as much as Talking to You has going for it, the CD won't win over those weren't fans of Rugs' work with Third World -- with this album, the Jamaican singer successfully preaches to the choir. ~ Alex Henderson, Rovi

1		Nowhere To Run
2		Now That We Found Love
3		That Feeling
4		Shanty Town (007)
5		If I Follow My Heart
6		Stand By Me
7		That's How I Feel
8		Hearts On Fire
9		War, War, War
10		Gloria
11		I'm Talking To You
12		Melody
13		Now That We Found Love