Monday, April 22, 2013

#855 The O'Jays - Back Stabbers

A Philadelphia soul album with a little bit of everything, leading off with some hard-edged Cloud Nine-era Temptations psychedelic soul, then working in some Calypso elements, Issac Hayes bombast, and syrupy balladic, with a couple of hard-hitters on the back end. 992 Arguments is a highlight, and manages to work all those themes into a single song, featuring a blistering MFSB vibe solo and generally sounding like an O'Jays song getting double-teamed by James Bond themes.

The album suffers from sounding like too many things at once: if the saccharine moments had been cut it could have been exhilarating, but as it is its a scattered, curious, still-compelling miniature masterpiece of the sounds of the time 4/5

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