Sound: The 1979 offering from the George Clinton brainchild "Funkadelic" starts off with a real "tempations" sort of feel in "freak of the week", that evolves through some sweet funk on "not just knee deep" (De La Soul fans will recognise the song as the sample for "Me, Myself, and I"), into a brief live ditty, followed by some shear funk to top of the album. The latter songs on the album have a distinct military/marching feel. The album has a fantastic production quality, many of the songs have many different instruments, horns, strings, guitars, synth etc., the sound really blends well together. // 10
Lyrics and Singing: Keeping in line with their other work, the lyrics are really out there, with a humourous undercurrent. The lyrical work on the album is fantastic, the backing singers have great skills, and these can easily be heard. The lyrics have a real doo-wop quality, with backing singers all the while through the album, blending in perfectly with the other instruments, and not really acting as a stand-alone entity, which really suits the genre. // 8
Impression: This album is a gem, it is deffinitely more evolved to some of their earlier work, and doesn't have many songs that are guitar based, unlike say, "Maggot Brain" or "standing on the verge of getting it on". That said, it's a must for any fan of funkadelic, george clinton, or funk, soul or fans of '60s and '70s dance in general. Also, george clinton is allegedy the second most sampled artist of all time, after James Brown, so this album is literally packed with various blues lines andriffs that will sound familiar. The song "Uncle Jam" on this album is quite possibly the happiest song I have ever heard! The album sets out to "Rescue Dance Music From The Blahs", as the cover claims, and it does exactly this, giving dance the funk up the injection it needed at the time. // 8
The ablbum was a break from the norm of that period. Thank goodness disco was in its lasts days, but during the age of disco, Funkadelic was a godsend, there is noome more funkier, there will not be another.