Dancing on the Ceiling

On Lionel Richie's third solo album, the ex-Commodore merges different genres into the glossy R&B sound he became known for. Though a departure from the straight-ahead soul of 1983’s <i>Can’t Slow Down</i>, songs like the pondering “Say You, Say Me” and the festive “Dancing on the Ceiling” have become bona-fide classics in the mainstream pop canon. Some 30 years later, this album can be seen as a victory lap, one in which Richie fully embraces his pop stardom and proves that the funk and soul sounds of his previous releases were clearly a thing of the past.