Voyeur is the seventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Kim Carnes, released on September 8, 1982, by EMI America Records. Carnes began writing material for Voyeur while touring her previous album Mistaken Identity (1981). Voyeur is a synth-pop album that Carnes described as "more consistent" than its predecessor. It received mixed reviews, with some critics in favor of the album, while others remarked that it failed to live up to the standard of Mistaken Identity. Writing and recording Carnes performed "Say You Don't Know Me" and "Thrill of the Grill" for the first time at The Savoy nightclub in New York on August 25, 1981. She recorded "Say You Don't Know Me" and filmed its accompanying music video in December 1981, a few days before she appeared on the Rod Stewart TV special Tonight He's Yours at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Rehearsals for the rest of the album began on March 1, 1982, shortly after the 24th Annual Grammy Awards where Kim Carnes had picked up Record of the Year and Song of the Year for "Bette Davis Eyes". The wins gave Carnes and her band a confidence and drive as they continued recording. Carnes described how they wanted to "continue combining the guitar with the synthesizer [and] blending synth with rock 'n roll", taking influence from The Alan Parsons Project, A Flock of Seagulls, Ultravox and Spandau Ballet. The next track Carnes recorded was "Looker", originally performed by Sue Saad and the Next as the theme for the 1981 Michael Crichton movie of the same name. Carnes played the synth on "Take It on the Chin", a song that she wrote by herself, as she felt there is a "certain feel that can be lost when someone else plays it." "Breaking Away from Sanity" was originally recorded with synthesizers and drums, but Carnes found it difficult to add her vocal to that mix. She continued: "Finally, after sitting down at the piano one morning, it dawned on me that the whole problem was that it wasn't being played the way it was intended: sitting at the piano with a real stark vocal." A choir of children's voices were added later. When writing "Voyeur" and "Thrill of the Grill", Carnes carefully considered how these songs would translate into music videos. Tina Turner recorded a demo of "Undertow" in the mid-1980s. Art direction The cover artwork of Voyeur shows Carnes