Thunder in My Heart, a disco album by the quirky singer, once again produced by Richard Perry, is listenable and has more than its share of good players including another of his singles Easy To Love. Olivia Newton-John songwriter Tom Snow co-wrote the title track with Sayer, while Albert Hammond helped out on the second song and follow-up hit. Half of the ten songs are Snow co-writes, with Hammond, Michael Omartian, Bruce Roberts, and others all contributing. The second HammondSayer title, "I Want You Back," is a pleasant album track, but with Omartian on piano, Jeff Porcaro on drums, and Larry Carlton on guitar, Perry could just put the session on automatic pilot. The album needs a jolt somewhere and it doesn't kick in; Sayer tries finding some middle ground while trying to make the transition to Engelbert Humperdinck, but actually comes off like a low-key guy version of Donna Summer. Ray Parker adds guitar to "It's Over" and James Newton Howard puts the synthesizers where they belong. From "Fool for Your Love" to "We Can Start It All Over Again," is more of the same highly listenable pop music. (The 2002 CD reissue on RPM adds the outtake "Kings Avenue" and a "session recording" (it's not specified whether it was an outtake, demo, or what) of "Tell Me Just One More Time". It also has an 11-minute spoken track of Sayer reminiscing about the album with producer Richard Perry.)
Disc 1: THUNDER IN MY HEART EASY TO LOVE LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE I WANT YOU BACK ITS OVER FOOL FOR YOUR LOVE WORLD KEEPS ON TURNING THERE ISN'T ANYTHING EVERYTHING I'VE GOT WE CAN START IT ALL OVER AGAIN LEO'S STORY, PART 5 KINGS AVENUE (STUDIO OUTTAKE) TELL ME JUST ONE MORE TIME (SESSION RECORDING)