MicShazam, I actually enjoy the 80's and early 90's pop sound. Like a lot of dance pop records from that period, I just don't think the "hits" were as good as a few of the B-sides in this particular case, hence my rating. If all the tracks had been as good as 'The World Still Turns' or 'Count The Days' or that one you mentioned, I'd have likely bumped my rating up around 8 because if its good dance pop, then its good regardless of the era or production.
Remember, I was the one who had everyone review the 1991 Seal debut a few months ago (which got trashed for similar reasons to Rhythm Of Love despite being a much stronger album compositionally).
Long story short, a lot of people get hung up about production and rawness vs more polished / mechanical sounding production and for some people its an issue they can't circumvent. So the deck was stacked against this even if the songwriting had been better than it is.
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