Not much to say about this except ‘why don’t they make ‘em like that any more?’. Rose Royce were equally at home on the dancefloor (Car Wash and so on) and slumped in the corner of a bar (this, Going Down etc). The only disco outfit who rival them in that respect are Odyssey. Love Don’t Live Here Anymore is really simple, a sparse arrangement complete with little poom-poom syndrums, and Gwen Dickey’s beautiful, unaffected voice right up front where it belongs. The lyrics are great (‘You abandoned me… just a vacancy’ etc) and the whole thing evokes the bleakness of failed love with great precision and economy. Let’s face it, the worst thing about the end of the affair is sorting out who’s going to live where, and this song really nails it.
Rupert Smith 