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The albums covered here are:-
This Old Heart Of Mine (1966)
Soul On The Rocks (1967)
It's Our Thing (1969)
The Brothers: Isley (1969)
Get Into Something (1970)
Givin' It Back (1971)
Brother, Brother, Brother (1972)
3 + 3 (1973)
Live It Up (1974)
The Heat Is On (1975)
Harvest For The World (1976)
Go For Your Guns (1977)
and Showdown (1978)
Scroll down to read the reviews.
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THIS OLD HEART OF MINE (1966)
1. Nowhere To Run2. Stop! In The Name Of Love
3. This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)
4. Take Some Time Out For Love
5. I Guess I'll Always Love You
6. Baby Don't You Do It
7. Who Could Ever Doubt My Love
8. Put Yourself In My Place
9. I Hear A Symphony
10. Just Ain't Enough Love
11. There's No Love Left
12. Seek And You Shall Find
This is, in my opinion, the first really good Isley Brothers' album for Motown. They had, of course, been knocking around for many years before this. Three albums had come out before this, dating back to 1959. Motown albums were strange beasts in the mid-sixties, let's be honest, often being a vehicle for hits, or including one side of great songs and one of "supper club" standards to rein in the "adult" audience. This one is not quite either of those, but, alongside the massive hits it does include several of the Isleys' takes on Motown songs made famous be other Motown acts. They do them all superbly, however, matching or even outdoing the originals.
Unlike albums from The Four Tops, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas and even sometimes The Temptations from the same period, there are no cheesy "fillers" on this album i.e. songs from popular stage musicals of Beatles covers. It is "proper" Motown all the way. For that reason, this album can be considered quite a credible one. The sound on the latest release is in stereo and is pretty good overall.
There has been considerable fuss made about the fact that the album's cover featured a completely incongruous picture of a blonde white couple on a beach, something you didn't even get on a Beach Boys album. I'm so not sure it was the awful racial slur it has been made out to be, it is simply an utterly ludicrous, irrelevant cover. Of course, a picture of The Isley Brothers would have been eminently preferable, but if it had been a similar drawn effort to those which appeared on three Four Tops albums, maybe not. Check them out - they're dreadful! (The offenders are "Four Tops Second Album", "Reach Out" and "Yesterday's Dreams").
The Isleys' cover of Martha Reeves & The Vandellas' iconic Nowhere To Run seems to use the same Funk Brothers' basic rhythm track, although some bits are different - some jangly, Eastern-sounding guitar bits for starters. Martha's cut was just so good, however, that although this one is perfectly acceptable, you can't help but compare it. The same sort of applies to Diana Ross & The Supremes' Stop! In The Name Of Love but the Isleys' version is a bit more punchy, vocally. Maybe it was not the best idea, though, to begin the album with two cover versions of songs everyone already knew from other artists. It didn't do much for creating an identity for the Isleys. The next track did the exact opposite, however. It was the peerless, irresistibly catchy, timeless This Old Heart Of Mine.
Take Some Time Out For Love is an upbeat stomper, with some serious falsetto vocals. The album's other big hit was the typically mid-sixties Motown sound of I Guess I'll Always Love You. It is full of great vocals and that trademark beat. Marvin Gaye's Baby Don't Do It is covered superbly, with a groovy drum break. Who Could Ever Doubt My Love is a regular Motown track from the period. The production on this one is a bit grainy.
Put Yourself In My Place was also done by Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Elgins and Chris Clark. The Isleys' version is possibly the best. I Hear A Symphony was, of course, a huge hit for Diana Ross & The Supremes. This is also an excellent version, with an impressive, soulful vocal. Just Ain't Enough Love is an infectious Isleys original. There's No Love Left is a wonderful slice of Motown magic. A true underrated gem. Seek And You Shall Find has a gloriously deep, rumbling bass rhythm. Like its predecessor, it is (comparatively) undiscovered gold.
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SOUL ON THE ROCKS (1967)
1. Got To Have You Back2. That's The Way Love Is
3. Whispers
4. Tell Me It's Just A Rumour Baby
5. One Too Many Heartaches
6. It's Out Of The Question
7. Why When Love Is Gone
8. Save Me From This Misery
9. Little Miss Sweetness
10. Good Things
11. Catching Up On Time
12. Behind A Painted Smile
This was, amazingly, The Isley Brothers' last album for the Motown label. Having been one of the label's leading lights from the outset, for some unfathomable reason, the in-house backing they were given decreased year upon year and they ended up disillusioned and to a certain extent, going through the motions, some say. Personally, I think this album is great, however. It would take them until 1973 to fully reinvent themselves again, though, which they did to great effect.
The material on here may have been overlooked somewhat but it certainly did well on the Northern Soul circuit. The Isley Brothers were one of the main Motown Northern Soul groups.
Got To Have You Back is a lively, buzzy guitar-driven stomper to open with, with a few typically 1967 Eastern influences in its guitar sound. That's The Way Love Is, also done by Gladys Knight, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations, is performed here with a great, floor-shaking vitality. Excellent stuff. A real Motown Northern Soul number. Whispers is another buzzy number and Tell Me It's Just A Rumour Baby is a Northern Soul classic right down to its stomping foundations. It is included on several Northern Soul compilations.
One Too Many Heartaches is a lovely, Smokey Robinson-esque melodic ballad, with real hints of The Temptations and Jimmy Ruffin in it too. It's Out Of The Question is another undervalued gem. Just superb. Love it. I have seen some commentors say that this is an album full of half-hearted material. Far from it. It is far the superior offering to The Four Tops albums which were reduced to cheesy easy-listening covers on the old "side two". This album is solid, catchy, quality numbers all the way. Another one is the stonking Why When Love Is Gone. It should have been a huge hit, not just on the Northern Soul scene.
Save Me From This Memory almost has a Temptations psychedelic soul feeling to its intro and the vocal is outstanding. Little Miss Sweetness is a brassy, soulful number. Good Things uses that guitar sound again. Catching Up On Time has such a Northern Soul intro and then we get the classic Behind A Painted Smile, which, of course, uses the buzzy guitar sound at its most well known with a superb, gritty riff. This song is one of the best Motown singles of all time, no question. This album is far better than many would have you believe. If you love Motown you will love this.
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IT'S YOUR THING (1969)
1. I Know Who You Been Socking It To2. Somebody Been Messin'
3. Save Me
4. I Must Be Losing My Touch
5. Feel Like The World
6. It's Your Thing
7. Give The Women What They Want
8. Love Is What You Make It
9. Don't Give It Away
10. He's Got Your Love
This was The Isley Brothers' first album after leaving Motown. In 1969, groups like The Temptations and solo artists like Isaac Hayes were showing that soul artists could put out credible albums, as opposed to ones made up simply of just singles and cover versions. The Isley Brothers got in on the burgeoning urban funky soul thing as pioneered by Sly & The Family Stone and James Brown. This was their first stab of going funky, brother. It was a success and, notably, it still retained some of that Isley Brothers flair and musical creativity too. It is only twenty-six minutes long, however, which is short, even for the time.
I Know Who You Been Socking It To introduced us to the new, funky Isleys, with a deep, chugging slice of urban, brass-powered funk. The same brass dominates the Sly Stone-esque Somebody Been Messin'. Save Me slows the pace down on a soulful ballad. Those Stax-style Memphis horns still drive the track along, Otis Redding fashion. It has a great soul vocal. I Must Be Losing My Touch is a wonderful, stomping number with a pounding, bassy sound and infectious beat. Feel Like The World is a slower tempo soul ballad.
It's Your Thing is the best known track, one that appears one several funk compilations. The Temptations covered it on their Puzzle People album too. It has great hooks, both vocally and brass-wise. Give The Women What They Want is a big, rumbling piece of contemporary funk. Once again, it is thumping and brassy. The women need love, by the way.
Love Is What You Make It is a sweet soul number to cool down the ambience a little. Don't Give It Away has an intoxicating, funky rhythm and Ernie Isley starts to me himself known on guitar throughout. He's Got Your Love ends on a punchy note with an upbeat, grinding soul number. Again, there are snatches of rock guitar riffs which give a hint at the future. This album started "phase two" for the Isleys, where they threw off the Motown shackles and became a serious group in their own right. Not that they hadn't been, their music had been great, but you felt that here they were doing what they wanted to do.
The instrumental versions on the extended remaster are excellent. The sound quality on the remaster of the original album is ok, but not truly outstanding, as the original source tapes probably still contain flaws.
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THE BROTHERS: ISLEY (1969)
1. I Turned You On2. Vacuum Cleaner
3. I've Got To Get Myself Together
4. Was It Good To You?
5. The Blacker The Berrie
6. My Little Girl
7. Get Down Off The Train
8. Holding On
9. Feels Like The World
Coming only four months after their first album since leaving Motown, The Isley Brothers continued on their journey into soul/funk as opposed to soul/pop. This a is most Stax-influenced cooker of an album. Again, it has been considerably overlooked, which is a shame as both the sound quality and the material is excellent. What is with the bizarre cover though? The brothers are pictured in shocking pink monks' habits and hoods, with bright white ties. Very odd.
I Turned You On is a funky, Stax-esque opener in the Rufus Thomas style. Vacuum Cleaner - "my love is like a vacuum cleaner...", despite its strange lyric, is a pounding, cookin' horn-driven piece of soul/funk. I've Got To Get Myself Together is a delicious, Memphis-style ballad. Was It Good To You? sees the punchy, brassy soul return. The Blacker The Berrie (sic) is a kind of reverse discrimination in praise of dark-toned ladies. It is full of sexual innuendoes about eating fruit. Musically, it is excellent, with some impressive saxophone.
My Little Girl is a very Otis Redding-influenced number with a bit of Drifters soul in the vocal, and Gary "US" Bonds for that matter. It is an excellent piece of horn-powered soul. Get Down Off The Train is also very Redding-like in its vocal delivery. The upbeat Holding On is fabulously funky and a joy to listen to. Feels Like The World is a bit of an unremarkable ballad to end on but that doesn't detract from the fact that this is an excellent album of late sixties soul. If you like soul from that era, this is well worth checking out.
Judy White's version of Vacuum Cleaner which is included as a bonus track on the latest edition is simply superb, as is Rudy & Judy's I've Got To Get Myself Together.
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GET INTO SOMETHING (1970)
1. Get Into Something2. Freedom
3. Take Inventory
4. Keep On Doin'
5. Girls Will Be Girls
6. I Need You So
7. If He Can You Can
8. I Got To Find Me One
9. Beautiful
10. Bless Your Heart
The third in the excellent run of post-Motown Isley Brothers albums. This one has the old "side one" being largely comprised of brassy, horn-driven funky soul, while "side two" serves up some slower pace ballads. This practice of having two distinct ambiences to each side was something that would be continued on their albums in the mid/late seventies as funk mixed with sweet soul.
Get Into Something is a seven minute funk workout, the first real sign of the direction the Isley Brothers' music would take as the seventies progressed. Yes, they had done shorter funky songs before, but this was an extended groove. It features a killer drum solo bit at the end and a bit where they say "let the bass come in..." and it duly does, rumblingly. Freedom has a jaunty, swinging brassy rhythm to it and a jazzy feel to it. Take Inventory is a superb slice of bassy funk. Just wonderful. This is the Isleys at their funkiest. Actually, just as cookin' is the thumping Keep On Doin'. For 1970, this is ground-breaking in its funkiness.
Bless Your Heart is, however infectious it undoubtedly is, a blatant re-write of It's Your Thing from the previous year. No matter, this has still been a stonker of an album, although one of two very different halves.
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GIVIN' IT BACK (1971)
1. Ohio/Machine Gun2. Fire And Rain
3. Lay Lady Lay
4. Spill The Wine
5. Nothing To Do But Today
6. Cold Bologna
7. Love The One You're With
It was a bold move for The Isley Brothers, in 1971, to release an album of cover versions of white artists' largely folk/country rock material and giving it their own unique soulful, funky stamp. While white artists often covered black music, the reverse didn't happen as often, apart from Motown acts endlessly covering The Beatles, of course. This was something somewhat different and is most interesting for it. Pictured on the cover, in sepia tones, with acoustic guitars, sitting on some farmyard hay bales, it looks like an album by The Band, so there was considerable surprise even in this.
The album kicks off with Neil Young's protest song concerning the shooting of four students by police in 1970 at Kent University, Ohio, delivered against a searing backing of electric guitar and deep funky bass and drums. It merges into the hard-hitting spoken words and rat-a-tat drumming of Jimi Hendrix's Machine Gun. This is adventurous stuff. Up there with What's Going On and material from The Temptations, Curtis Mayfield and The Undisputed Truth for social awareness. You cannot underestimate the power and effect of this. The album is worth getting for this track alone. Check out Ernie Isley's guitar too. Stunning and very atmospheric.
James Taylor's Fire And Rain is given the Isley treatment and it has a bit of a Summer Breeze feel about it in places, while Bob Dylan's Lay Lady Lay is extended to a full ten minutes and, although it has a good, laid-back soulful vocal, for some reason I feel the Isleys' talents are best served on other material and I much prefer the original. It goes on far too long, the title repeated ad nauseam and doesn't quite get there for me. Not that the vocal isn't beautiful at times and the bass line too, for that matter.
Spill The Wine has a jaunty Caribbean-style rhythm to it. It is a complete mood change to the previous track (a new side on the original album). It has a quirky appeal to it. It was originally done by Eric Burdon & War. I like this one. Stephen Stills' Nothing To Do But Today is given a staccato, funky beat and a jazzy improvised vocal, although this starts to grate a bit by the end.
Bill Withers' star had not quite risen at this point, but it was certainly on the rise and he appears here in his own Cold Bologna, which appeared on his 1973 live album as Cold Baloney. The song is given a quirky, rhythmic makeover, although Withers' sparser version is probably the better one. Those acoustic guitars from the cover make their first real appearance on another Stills song, the country rock of Love The One You're With.
Personally, I much prefer the albums that were released either side of this one - Get Into Something and Brother, Brother, Brother. I admire the Isleys for the concept of the album, but it doesn't quite work for me. I feel they are out of their comfort zone just a little bit. I know that is a big thing to say, because this is still a seriously good album, but that is how I feel about it. It is their funky soul all the way for me, not singing "lay lady lay" for ten minutes. Sorry, many will feel that is sacrilegious, I know. It is a grower of an album, though, maybe therein lies its strength.
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BROTHER, BROTHER, BROTHER (1972)
1. Brother, Brother2. Put A Little Love In Your Heart
3. Sweet Seasons
4. Keep On Walkin'
5. Work To Do
6. Pop That Thang
7. Lay Away
8. It's Too Late
9. Love Put Me On The Corner
This was a soulful album from The Isley Brothers, and it was the last in their series of late sixties/early seventies transitional albums from Motown pop via soul to funk. The album tapped into the laid-back aware grooves of artists like Marvin Gaye and The O'Jays. Of course, the title, "Brother, Brother, Brother" was a quote from Gaye's What's Going On. The sound quality is also excellent on this little-mentioned, but really enjoyable album.
Carole King's Brother, Brother is given a soulful What's Going On treatment. Jackie DeShannon's Put A Little Love In Your Heart is perfect early seventies pop/soul. Sweet Seasons is a delicious Northern Soul meets the Staple Singers groove with a Curtis Mayfield-style falsetto vocal in places. There is a hint of Paul Weller's Out Of The Sinking to it, if that doesn't sound too far-fetched. The track morphs seamlessly into the effortless, appealing gospelly funk of Keep On Walkin'. In turn, this merges into the funky soul of Work To Do, which has a few hints of later material, such as on the 3 + 3 album.
Pop That Thang is as solidly funky as the title may imply. The groove on so many of the tracks on this album is irresistible. Lay Away continues in the same vein, one of classic early seventies funk/soul. These Isley Brothers albums from this period are really quite unfairly overlooked. I know I keep labouring the point, but this album is a pleasure from beginning to end, if you like this sort of thing, that is.
As well as punchy funky soul, the early seventies was known for extended, slowed-down sensual numbers. The mood is therefore cooled down for late-night with a deep, soulful cover of Carole King's It's Too Late, slowed down to walking pace, featuring some killer Ernie Isley guitar interjections. It has an Isaac Hayes feel to its slow rhythm, also in its ten minutes of running time. Love Put Me On The Corner is another lengthy and very Hayes-esque slow burner, with a deep bass line and excellent vocal. While these last two tracks are impressive slow soul numbers, it is, for me, the funky vibrancy of the earlier material that really makes the album.
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3 + 3 (1973)
1. That Lady, Parts 1 & 22. Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
3. If You Were There
4. You Walk Your Way
5. Listen To The Music
6. What It Comes Down To
7. Sunshine (Go Away Today)
8. Summer Breeze, Parts 1 & 2
9. The Highways Of My Life
After getting the rough end of the stick in their latter years at Motown, The Isley Brothers had drifted for a bit in the late sixties/early seventies, then they move to the Epic label, added three more siblings (two brothers and a cousin) to their line up and fully exploited their liking for rock music influences, merging it into their already well-developed soulfulness. What we then had was a perfect soul/funk/rock band and this excellent album was the best of their mid seventies output, by far. The two siblings who joined were notable for their contributions - the unique rock guitar sound of Ernie Isley and the rubber-band bass style of Marvin Isley. They re-created The Isleys' sound overnight. This rock influence was not something that alienated soul fans, however, they loved it, it would seem and rock audiences allowed the group in to the circle of respect, too. Despite the new influences, it is still very much a soul album, however.
That Lady, Parts 1 & 2 needs no introduction. It is a magnificent piece of souk/funk/rock fusion. Its iconic feature is Ernie Isley's wonderful, buzzy guitar that is all over it. The vocal and general, catchy soul vibe is infectious too. The cover of James Taylor's Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight is a sumptuous, seductive late-night soul ballad, with a beautiful vocal. If You Were There is a melodic, clavinet-driven pleasant soul number. You Walk Your Way is an inviting, rhythmic slow number, in the Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes style, but with a much higher pitch of vocal.
The Isleys' take on The Doobie Brothers' country rock of Listen To The Music is interesting. The main riff is a funky clavinet one, and the drums are staccato and funkily groovy. The track is very different to the original. Some delicious funky wah-wah guitar introduces the lively and catchy, vocally harmonious What It Comes Down To. It also features some searing guitar near the end.
Sunshine (Go Away Today) is a brooding, Sly & The Family Stone-influenced, excellent slice of funk rock. It is one of the underrated tracks on the album. Like That Lady, the delectable Summer Breeze, Parts 1 & 2 is surely known to all. It is actually a cover of a Seals & Crofts song but The Isleys well and truly made it their own. It is rhythmic, melodic, singalong, soulful, dare I say breezy. It is all of those things and more. Up there in The Isleys' top five, for sure. Check out that guitar in Part 2. Awesome. Santana-esque. The Highways Of My Life is a laid-back, piano-led, tasty ballad to end this highly recommended and influential album with. Great album.
*** Incidentally the two "quad" mixes on the latest, extended release of the album are superb, even when played through the standard two speakers.
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LIVE IT UP (1974)
1. Live It Up, Parts 1 & 22. Brown Eyed Girl
3. Need A Little Taste Of Love
4. Lover's Eye
5. Midnight Sky, Parts 1 & 2
6. Hello It's Me
7. Ain't I Been Good To You, Parts 1 & 2
This was a confident funky soul album from the re-invented Isley Brothers. While the previous year's excellent 3 + 3 had seen an infectious, airy soul sound taking in rock guitar influences, this album was far more of a laid-back soul/funk album, with dance-ish funk rhythms dominating many of the tracks. For me, it is just a bit underwhelming after the glory of its predecessor. It is not a bad album in its own right, however, it just suffers a bit in comparison. Personally, I also find the production slightly muffled, nowhere near as clear as 3 + 3. Check out those costumes on the cover though - before Earth, Wind & Fire caught on, too.
Live It Up, Parts 1 & 2 is an extended dance/soul groove, slightly Parliament/Funkadelic-sounding, full of clavinet riffs and augmented by Ernie Isley's rock-influenced guitar, such as he used to great effect on 1973's That Lady. The Part 2 bit just extends the instrumental groove, as on all the Part 2s. Brown Eyed Girl is not the Van Morrison song, but a smooth, Stevie Wonder-esque slow soul ballad. Need A Little Taste Of Love is a lively, upbeat funker, with a bit of that muffled sound I was talking about. It was very much in the vein of the sort of material The Jacksons would excel in a few years later. Ernie supplies some killer guitar on this one.
Lover's Eye brings the pace down with a smooth piano, organ and percussion slowie. It again has big hints of Stevie Wonder about it. Midnight Sky, Parts 1 & 2 has a great funky punch to it, but it is once more blighted by a muddy sound. Sure, there is a pleasing bass thump to the funk, which I always welcome, but a bit more clarity to the buried in the mix percussion would suit my taste. Some classic rock guitar dominates Part Two. Don't get me wrong, it is an excellent track, I would just like a little tweaking here and there.
Hello It's Me, in comparison, has a beautiful, crystal clear quality to its sound. It is a lush, syrupy sweet soul slow number in the Lionel Richie mode (not just in its title). It provides a late-night, relaxing interlude to the strong funk rhythms of much of the rest of the album. They return with the muscular funk breaks of Ain't I Been Good To You, Parts 1 & 2, in between soulful, melodic verses. Part 2 slows the whole thing down to a laid-back vocal and organ vibe. The previously funky, thumping chorus is now a soulful, heart-rending slow vocal. Some excellent guitar soloing comes in too. The guitar/vocal interplay at the end is positively Led Zeppelin-esque.
This album led the way in soul/funk in 1974, it has to be said. Along with Barry White's work, the trend for extended grooves and funk workouts was being set here.
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THE HEAT IS ON (1975)
1. Fight The Power2. The Heat Is On
3. Hope You Feel Better Love
4. For The Love Of You
5. Sensuality
6. Make Me Say It Again Girl
The classic Isley Brothers 3 + 3 lineup returns for a third album here with more classic funky soul with rock guitar influences turning up occasionally. The tracks are all lengthy, all six of them listed as being Parts 1 & 2. It was quite de rigeur in the mid seventies for soul albums to not have many tracks - Isaac Hayes and Barry White in particular setting that trend. This is more upbeat, funky fare than their late-night smoochers, however. Where it suffers in comparison to 3 + 3, for me, is that melodic soul such as That Lady or Summer Breeze seems to have been sacrificed somewhat in favour of industrial strength funk. To a certain extent. As with most mid-seventies Isleys albums the funk is balanced by the inclusion of some sweet soul ballads. This was very much an album of two distinct sides.
Fight The Power is a fast-paced funky groove with a big rubber-band bass line coursing throughout the song, driving it along. There are some Michael Jackson whoops several years before Jackson put the into every song. The Heat Is On is another gritty, funky grinder.
Hope You Feel Better Love has a catchy, upbeat guitar strummed intro and a lighter, more soulful vocal than on the previous two. There is a bit of a Doobie Brothers vibe to the guitar sound. Some serious electric guitar rock soloing from Ernie Isley at the end too.
The mood changes on the slow, slick soul groove of For The Love Of You. Sensuality turns the lights down even lower on a real smoocher, Barry White style, (except the vocal is falsetto). Make Me Say It Again Girl continues in the same vein.
It is a perfectly listenable album, but without anything "special" on it. I prefer 3 + 3, Live It Up and Harvest For The World. It is one of those albums I listen to and think "yes, that was ok", but afterwards, I couldn't really tell you too much about it, other than one half was good, solid funk and the other polished soul ballads. No track actually stuck in my mind.
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HARVEST FOR THE WORLD (1976)
1. Harvest For The World (Prelude)2. Harvest For The World
3. People Of Today
4. Who Loves You Better
5. (At Your Best) You Are Love
6. Let Me Down Easy
7. So You Wanna Stay Down
8. You Still Feel The Need
Another in the series of excellent "comeback" albums of funky soul merged with occasional rock-ish guitar that The Isley Brothers gave us in the mid-seventies. This is very much an album of two halves - lively, upbeat disco-ish funk to begin with, then on to sublime soul ballads, ending with a bit more funk.
Harvest For The World is an energising, effervescent and wonderfully infectious number, full of melody and great hooks. It was one of the group's biggest hits and still gets regular airtime today. Its prelude uses the "gather every man" line in a slow, soulful build up before launching into the familiar strains of the song. It has a nice deep bass line in the background. The vocal harmonies as the song progresses are sublime. People Of Today is a chunky, clavinet-driven funker. So funky it hurts. It is often forgotten that The Isley Brothers could funk it.
Who Loves You Better was the album's first single release. It captures the disco-ish ambience of the age in an upbeat disco-funk number with some use of that old faithful That Lady buzzy guitar too. There are some great guitar riffs towards the end.
The old "side two" begins with a bit of Harold Melvin-esque soul smooching on (At Your Best) You Are Love . As well as funkin' out, the brothers could lay down a bit of sweet soul too. Lovely bass line on it too. This is classic mid-seventies soul fare. The late night vibe continues on the sumptuous, slow pace of Let Me Down Easy. The tempo ups again for the lively, rhythmic soul of So You Wanna Stay Down. You Still Feel The Need is a slow chugger of a track with another killer funk riff.
The remastered sound is pretty good, but not quite as great as some have suggested. There is a tiny bit of muffling, for me. That is a very minor gripe, though. This is still a good seventies soul album.
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GO FOR YOUR GUNS (1977)
1. The Pride2. Footsteps In The Dark
3. Tell Me When You Need It Again
4. Climbin' Up The Ladder
5. Voyage To Atlantis
6. Livin' In The Life
7. Go For Your Guns
This is probably The Isley Brothers' funkiest album from the post-1973 reinvention. It is considered by many to be their best album from that period, even above 3 + 3 and Harvest For The World. Despite its cover, which features on stage photos, it is not a live album.
The Pride is 100% copper-bottomed upbeat, funky groove. It has a huge rubber-band bass line, particularly in the bit near the end. Footsteps In The Dark slows down the pack on a bassy, but laid-back harmonious ballad. It has some delicious percussion. The sound quality on this album is better than on some of the other Isley Brothers ones from the same period, which can, in my opinion, be a little muffled in places.
Tell Me When You Need It Again has some Sly Stone Family Affair-style wah-wah funky guitar and keyboards, some buzzy Ernie Isley rock guitar and a strong, gruff vocal. It is a good, solid slow funk/soul grinder. Climbin' Up The Ladder is a vibrant, punchy piece of hard rocking funk. Voyage To Atlantis is a lovely, sweet soul number that echoes the beauty of 1973's Summer Breeze. It has a bit of that Earth, Wind & Fire mysticism about it too.
Livin' In The Life is a superb slice of catchy funk/pop. You can't keep still to this one. It seamlessly merges into the instrumental, buzzy guitar-driven Go For Your Guns. Large parts of this album are extended instrumental passages and this is part of its appeal. Yes, it lacks a That Lady, Summer Breeze or Harvest For The World but it has far more of an ambience that sticks in your mind than, say, 1975's The Heat Is On. This was The Isley Brothers giving their best funk.
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SHOWDOWN (1978)
1. Showdown2. Groove With You
3. Ain't Givin' Up No Love
4. Rockin' With Fire
5. Take Me To The Next Phase
6. Coolin' Me Out
7. Fun And Games
8. Love Fever
Released when disco was the big thing, this Isley Brothers album mixes their brand of funky soul with rock influences with a definite disco rhythm on a lot of the tracks. The line up that started this phase of their career in 1973 with 3 + 3 was beginning to sound a bit samey by now, but this is still an acceptable album, but it was probably the last of the group's really good-selling offerings. Were those outfits for real on the cover, though, lads? Dear oh dear.
Showdown is complete with Michael Jackson vocal yelps (so that's where he got them from) and a solid disco groove. Incidentally, the "rehearsal" cut of this track that comes with the latest remaster is superb, and superior to this one that was used on the eventual album, for me. Either version is a corker, however. Muscular, funky disco.
Often on a Isleys album, the first half would be groovers, the second smoochy ballads. Here, we get a sweet soul number second one up in the slick, soulful Groove With You. Quality soul on offer here. The same applies to the slow-cookin' Ain't Given' Up No Love, which marries some Sly Stone-ish vocals and some solid Parliament-style funk with Ernie Isley's unique rock guitar.
Rockin' With Fire brings back the disco/rock beat with another Jacksons-influenced floor-stomper. It is full of disco riffs, pounding drums and funky clavinet. This is a copper-bottomed piece of disco with a rock edge to it. The groove continues with the uber-funk strut of Take Me To The Next Phase , another Funkadelic/Parliament/Sly Stone-style number. It has some "live" crowd noises tagged on to it, but it is a studio recording. Coolin' Me Out lives up to its title with a laid-back, cool slice of melodic, harmonious soul.
Some exuberant wah-wah guitar introduces the catchy, vibrant slick urban disco of Fun And Games. Love Fever is another lively, infectious groover, enhanced by some more killer guitar and an insistent, intoxicating beat.
All of these tracks are extended versions, listed as Parts 1 & 2, consistent with most of their seventies albums. This is a good album for experiencing the best of the, often overlooked, quality disco fare that was being served up in 1978, that was not always appreciated either at the time or subsequently.
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