Category Archives: Records

I bought this album just for She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked), and the rest of the album is kind of forgettable. It sounds good, and the songs are catchy, but She’s a Bad Mama Jama is so good nothing else really compares. Leon Haywood should probably sue Bruno Mars, who stole […]

Decent album from percussionist Ralph MacDonald, who co-wrote Just the Two of Us with Bill Withers and worked as a session musician for Grover Washington, Jr., George Benson and Ron Carter. This 1984 album has some interesting sounds including steel drums and congas with Bill Withers and Grover Washington, Jr. guesting. Some of the album […]

Bargain Banger Picked this up because its Material, a Laswell and Beinhorn production, and was surprised to see Nile Rodgers playing guitar. Man, this is a good record. It was recorded in 1982 and is an excellent example of Material’s output from the time, its super funky but still is distinctly the work of Bill […]

1975 album from The O’Jays, a Gamble and Huff production. Family Reunion is more of the Philly sound, it is a lot closer to what would become disco than Ship Ahoy, and the vocals do not disappoint. I Love Music was a big hit, the album went platinum, and Gamble and Huff would continue to […]

This is a really great Quincy Jones album that is a pleasurable listen. Jones’s rendition of Chaz Jankel’s Ai No Corrida starts the album and it doesn’t let down after that. Most of The Dude was recorded with a collection of session musicians, the production is incredible and the arrangements are fantastic. Quincy Jones was […]

Some of the cleanest funk I’ve heard, Cut The Cake is full of passable grooves and soul, along with some standouts like the title track and Groovin’ The Night Away. Average White Band hit the studio in 1974 to record their follow-up to AWB minus one drummer after the rhythm section accidentally snorted heroin that […]

Tangerine Dream’s 1973 Phaedra was their first on Virgin and was recorded at Richard Branson’s castle manor studio in England. The German group established their sound on this album with a Moog synthesizer, and made them a worldwide success, but still only sold 6,000 in their native country. It’s a landmark electronic album from one […]

Pink Floyd’s 1967 debut, the first and last to be made with Syd Barrett as the leader. It is the band’s most psychedelic album, and depending on your point of view, their best. Piper at the Gates of Dawn is definitely interesting listening and essential for every fan of Pink Floyd and fans of 60’s […]

Oakland’s Tower of Power experienced their greatest success with this album, recorded in 1973 and the first with Lenny Williams. Their third album, Tower of Power is very funky and full of horns, but Williams’ vocals really shine. The record sounds fantastic, and while some funk/soul groups split their albums between ballads and groovy songs, […]

A Brothers Johnson highlight and the last that Quincy Jones produced, 1980’s Light Up The Night was produced at the same time as Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall, and features a lot of the same writers and musicians as that record. Michael Jackson and Rod Temperton even wrote some of the songs, while Jackson sings […]