Blue Horizon found Gale producing himself for the first time, and hand picking the musicians around him. So it's interesting the music reflects his Caribbean connections. With two contrasting drummers, there's a strong reggae vibe (mixed with a shade of samba on the title track, so go figure that one!), while Gale himself cuts back to a bluesier feel. There are, of course, slices of blatant pop (‘Wait Until The City Sleeps’) but Gale's tastefulness shines through. The pop slant's stronger when Bob James gets his mitts on Island Breeze. The hoops Gale has to jump through are summed up by ‘Boardwalk’ which shoehorns together a James pop melody with Gale's blues-rich solos. But it's also a James song, ‘Dark Romance’, which is the stand out from both these albums, a mini-epic of soul jazz. Island Breeze would be Gale's last outing for Elektra. Indeed, only two more solo recordings would follow. So this was no bad place for the enigmatic Gale to sign off.