#277 Parliament - Funkentelechy vs The Placebo Syndrome

AMG says its good, and I've liked all the Parliament/Funkadelic stuff I've heard so far.

I don't know if there's an established stylistic difference between Parliament and Funkadelic, but I think I tend to prefer the latter. This seems a lot less heavy, more about having a goofy, lighthearted good time than the deep grooves of Maggot Brain or One Nation Under a Groove, which are my Clinton-cabal favorites. This splits the disc between long loseyerselfinable jams and shorter pop stabs, but its missing some of the deep near-psychadelic edge of the best jams, and doesn't quite do pop as well as previous short songs. Funkentelechy and Bop Gun in particular are just a bit too pop-bass, a bit too electronic-tinged, a bit too cheesy on the horns, a bit too messy. The organ break at 5:20 on bop gun is the biggest offender, its just...not cool.

Don't get me wrong, the album's good. There's some fun songs, and Placebo Syndrome is a unique, trippy swirlaround. If this was the only P/F album out there it would be a huge hit for me, but I just don't like it as much as a lot of the other stuff I've heard in this vein, and I can't ignore that well enough to be higher than 3.5/5