Originally released back in 1987 I'm Only Fooling Myself was the second solo effort out under the Eric Martin banner following on from 1985's self titled debut which in itself followed up 1983's Sucker For A Pretty Face issued as the Eric Martin Band. Well I say solo album, but, truth be told, I'm Only Fooling Myself was more like the record company's attempt at making Eric Martin a star after the self penned debut album had failed to live up to expectations commercially and hadn't realised any hits. Record labels being record labels (Capitol in this instance) they supplied Martin with ten potential hits for this record from outside writers, with the likes of Dan Hartman, Simon Climie, Billy Steinberg and Neil Geraldo amongst others providing ready made material. To be honest given that the album also featured the cream of the session musician's at the time and the fact that it was produced by Richie Zito all Mr. Martin had to do was to turn up and sing and success was guaranteed, was it not?

If only everything in life we're so simple, sure all Mr Martin had to do was turn up and sing and indeed he did that very well, but the material was not exactly what long time Eric Martin fans would have expected. Very much in the light AOR vein with huge soul and RnB influences it was somewhat different to past efforts, think Paul young, Howard Jones and Hall and Oates and you won’t be a million miles away.

Opener These Are The Good Times also featured on the sound track to the movie Iron Eagle and is quite representative of the album as a whole, too laid back and wimpy even for me and with a very 80’s production that has been beefed up thanks to the re-mastering by Rock Candy. Even Eric wasn’t 100% convinced by some of the material and given the fact the album produced no hit singles the label subsequently dropped Martin. But every cloud has a  sliver lining, he had already tried out for Van Halen and was offered the vocalist slot in Toto but instead he was contacted by Billy Sheehan and that’s were it all really started for Martin with the formation of Mr. Big.

As far as Martin's career is concerned I'm Only Fooling Myself  is a bit of curio, certainly not in line with any other release stylistically and it really only goes to prove that even in the 1980's record companies at times need to leave the artist alone to get on with it. Perhaps the biggest appeal of this release is the fact that two of the songs, Every time I Think Of You and Crazy World Like This went on to be recorded by other artists, namely FM & Robin Beck respectively, but even then neither really caused the charts any trouble. So there you go, an album for the die hard Eric Martin fan, and as with all Rock Candy releases it comes with superlative liner notes courtesy of Dave Cockett, but this was an album of its time and that time has unfortunately has passed.

Dougie