“Let’s Stop Talkin’ About It”
Janie Fricke
Written by Deborah Allen, Rory Bourke, and Rafe Van Hoy
Radio & Records
#1 (1 week)
March 16, 1984
Billboard
#1 (1 week)
March 31, 1984
Janie Fricke completes a string of three consecutive No. 1 hits with “Let’s Stop Talkin’ About It.”
I can only assume that career momentum got this one to the top because this simply isn’t of the same caliber as its predecessors, despite the strong songwriting pedigree and the best efforts of Fricke to spin straw into gold.
The song’s concept doesn’t work. “Let’s stop talking about it” should be followed by silence. It’s supposed to capture the moment when a love affair goes from words to actions, but by building the song around that line, there’s nowhere for the rest of the narrative to go after the first chorus. So it meanders, and loses its sense of urgency along the way.
I guess he still wanted to keep talking about it.
Fricke went top ten with the final single from Love Lies, “If the Fall Don’t Get You.” But she rebounds with a Merle Haggard duet and another solo single, so we’ll be seeing her again soon.
“Let’s Stop Talking About It” gets a C-.
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…she means her hair, doesn’t she? or perhaps the toaster.
There is no tension to this performance.
This song suffers from the narrator’s emphasis on the annoyance with all the chatter about “getting down to love” to the total exclusion of what is motivating that hunger in the first place.
It feels almost like “let’s get it over with already” more than “I can’t wait another second for it.”
The lyrical details about what has brought them to this moment feel thin no? “It’s clear we are both wanting one another?” ” I am ready?” Sounds like the couple is getting ready to go grocery shopping together.
I would love to hear some of that clarity or readiness and urgency in the production as well. It is too bright, bouncy, and playful. The sonic mood should sound more frustrated and dangerous, immanent even, like something, or someone, is about to give.
Then again, maybe this is a hook-up song that never sets the hook. The couple will just eventually talk their way into somebody else’s bed.
I still, however, am thrilled to keep rediscovering Fricke’s amazing vocals.