Can We Try Again

“Can We Try Again” brings Narada Michael Walden’s now-familiar production camp into Howard Hewett’s world: Walden produced, arranged, and co-wrote the track with Hewett and Sally Jo Dakota, adding drum programming and Fairlight bass himself, while Frank Martin supplies keyboards and programming and David Frazer records and mixes - the same engineer behind Shanice’s “I Hate To Be Lonely,” Cherrelle’s “Nothing’s Ever Gonna Stop,” and Lisa Fischer’s own “How Can I Ease The Pain.”

That connection runs deeper than credits on a sheet: Lisa Fischer herself sings backing vocals here, alongside Claytoven Richardson, Sandy Griffith, and Annie Stocking - some of the same session singers who’d already lent their voices to Shanice’s record. If you’ve followed this corner of the archive’s Walden/Frazer thread through “I Hate To Be Lonely”, “Nothing’s Ever Gonna Stop”, and “How Can I Ease The Pain”, “Can We Try Again” is the fourth stop on the same map - Fischer this time singing behind someone else’s lead for a change. The same engine kicks the album off two tracks earlier too, on “Save Your Sex For Me”.