The Osmonds - Brainstorm/Steppin' Out

Unlike some others, I love the Steppin' Out album much better than Brainstorm. Brainstorm in my opinion is an oxymoron. It seems not much thought went into what the Osmond Brothers wanted this to be. However, there are a couple of few good songs ("I Can't Live a Dream," "Learning How to Love Again," "Check It Out" (Jay sings lead), and "Medicine Man". The rest I could do without. I give this album 3.5 stars.On the other hand, Steppin' Out WAS the brainstorm that was released too late when disco was dying. It has 8 great songs. I love all of them except "It'll Be Me," and "I,I,I" which I frequently skip. The Osmond Brothers also wrote 8 of the 10 songs on Steppin' Out. "Love Ain't An Easy Thing" and "Rest Your Love" are Neal Sedaka and Bee Gees Songs, respectively. I like the sound of the Osmonds better than the Bee Gees because I never cared for the high voices of the Bee Gees. The harmonies of the Osmond Brothers are so much better. Jay does an awesome job on singing "Steppin' Out' and "Check It Out." Wayne does an awesome job on "Rest Your Love," a country sounding song. Wondering why Wayne and Marie didn't sing country duets. That would have been a winning combination. But I would rather have Jay sing "Put Your Love on the Line" and Merrill leading on "You're Mine" sing "Rainin'." Both are still great songs. Merrill does great singing lead on "I Can't Live a Dream," "At Rainbow's End," "Learnin' How to Love Again," "Emily," "You're Mine" (with Wayne), "Baby's Back," "Love Ain't an Easy Thing," and "Hold On." I think if the Osmonds would have released this album a couple of years early, the album would have charted. In any case, an excellent album overall and so I give "Steppin' Out" 5 stars.Overall, both albums together average over 4 stars but I'm giving it 5 stars because there are 10 great songs and 2 good songs, all for the price of one album. I recommend this CD to any Osmond fan (unless they really dislike disco) and to anyone who is a fan of disco or funk or music of the mid 1970s.

I had long been a fan of the earlier Osmonds efforts, "Crazy Horses" and their "concept"-album, "The Plan", and recently was given both the double-album that had those two compiled together - as well as these two - as a gift, and I gotta say - WOW! It's clear the Osmonds had been listening to a lot of disco and late-70's funk and R&B - mainly, Earth, Wind & Fire, Sly & the Family Stone, Ohio Players, K.C & the Sunshine band and Tower of power, to name a few - and wanted to let their funk flag fly. I'm not yet sure, having not read the liner notes to see if they played all the instruments (as they had on the previous albums), or if it's studio guys doing it, but there are moments on these albums of sheer musical brilliance. Yes, it's cheesy, yes, it's cleaned-up and "Osmond-ized", but you can really feel here (as you could on Crazy Horses and The Plan) that the brothers are trying to push the limits that their Mormon-upbringing/Teeny-bopper-audience restraints would allow - and show that they were much more musically diverse than "One bad apple". I have long eschewed the wonderfulness that is the Osmonds - and not only in an ironic way, as is so popular with the hipsters these days when trying to out-cool the other guy by having something "so-bad-it's-good" - but in a real, honest admiration - to musical friends not familiar with their music, and this only makes me want to turn them onto this.If you're already a fan, you'll love this. If not, well, you may think this is the cheesiest thing you've ever heard - or, you'll love it, anyway.

I love the CD.

Something a bit different in some of the songs. Good to listen to, though.

One of my favorite albums by The Osmonds is Brainstorm. Favorite songs on this one include, I Can't Live A Dream, Gotta Get Love, At The Rainbow's End, and Back On The Road Again. Happy to have this one on CD, along with the rest of the collection. If they could only get the country albums in their entirety on disc, that would work for me as well. Forever an Osmond fan, Enjoy and Stay 2nd :-)

Had these vinyl records when I was young and felt like re-visiting my tween-hood. The quality is great. The price is great. I especially like the updated liner notes that give more information about what went into these albums.

It was tons of fun listening to all these songs again! I only wish all the osmonds songs would be released. There are still some albums that were made after these that I've not seen on CD yet. Let's get those out there for the fans to enjoy guys!!!I would also love to see the live album "Around the World" on CD!

Although I am not a fan of disco music, the Osmonds cannot sing badly. The last track on the cd is Rest Your Love, a country ballad that is only better sung by them.

At the point of writing this review, I have also went back and reviewed six other Osmond albums. It landed me here at this double whammy of Brainstorm from 1976 and Steppin' Out from 1979. I was honestly surprised to see how little fanfare these two albums have got. Not only are they the band going back to doing what they best, but they're are mostly all self penned and very well made.As I mentioned earlier, these two albums go back to the band writing their own material and what a difference it makes. The Brainstorm album feels like a natural successor to The Plan and is a really great record. Steppin' Out is a fair change in direction, but considering the trends in music, I'm not really surprised. But like its predecessor, the songs are all still quite strong, there's some quality production work and all the usual musical charms are there.Steppin' Out is the main reason I fancied this packaged. I do love me some Bee Gees, and when I read about the involvement the band had with Barry Gibb, I just had to check it out. What I got out of it was a reasonably dated but very well made disco album. The record sounds like something Gibb would do, has moments where they clearly take influence from other artists like Earth, Wind and Fire as well as The Commodores. Despite these obvious nods to other artists, it remains quite strong through out. It has plenty of that Osmond flair through out. I'm surprised it wasn't a bigger hit. But then, I tend to like things others don't. It may just be me that loves this record.Of all the remasters, this is by FAR the best sounding of the bunch. These CDs sound very good and I loved listening to them. Sure, it doesn't have the commercial appeal that some fans want. But I'm looking for good musicianship over anything else and it can be found here by the bucket load. Don't buy this collection looking for a hit or two. Buy this looking to hear the Osmonds doing something interesting and something a little different. Go on, it's nice to have a bit of change every now and again.

They came into the pop and rock world with their own songs, went through a "boy band ballad phase" and then, when the big fame game seemed to have gone for ever, released 2 great albums - "Brainstorm" and "Stepping Out". What makes these albums special is that most of the songs are penned by the brothers again.Brainstorm has some classic pop tracks as well as a few indicators that they want to get back to their rock roots - "I Can't Live a Dream" is a fab song, true pop with great poetic lyrics and then "Walkin in the Jungle" is just shear fun!With this double compilation though the forgotten, perhaps never discovered "Stepping Out" Album is worth every moment - produced by the great Maurice Gibb it links in with the disco pop and rock of the late 70's and early 80's. A number of these tracks made it onto the 50th Anniversary tour in May 2008 - rightly so - "I I I" being just amazing. If you prefer ballads "It's Rainin" is a delightful end of romance song.Get this album as a record of when the brothers made it back to quality, even if at the time the crowds seemed to have desserted themMargaret

Two Osmond albums on one CD - bargain. Brainstorm is a good album that I used to have on vinyl but Steppin' Out is new to me and I'm not so keen, perhaps it will grow on me.

Just had to have this now . So many memories . Best First ever boy band that Rocked our world

Love the osmond all the family since I was 7 years old lost my records love cds so perfect.