November 12, 2010

Sly & The Family Stone
Back On The Right Track - 1979

THANK GOD IT'S SLY-DAY!!!!!!

So this was supposed to be a comeback album, right? Wasn't the last one, too? I don't know what this was trying to get back to, but it's not the classic Family Stone sound. Not that this a bad record by any means, it's just tough to consider it a comeback. It's not even a Family Stone album, even though it does have some 'family' members. Warner Brothers just labeled it as such in hopes of selling more albums

This later Sly stuff is good, but lacks the 'sheer energy' of the early albums or the laid back, dark grooves of the middle period records. It sounds like he still has that dark fear, paranoia and disillusionment that came up with Riot, but knows that sounding more upbeat will be better for his career. For some reason I think High On You works much better than this record. Maybe it's because he was revitalized a little bit by not being billed as The Family Stone.

All that aside, there are some tight funk tracks on this one. Actually, pretty much all of it is fun and grooves pretty hard. The problem is we know what masterpieces came before it.




Track listing:
Side A:
1. Remember Who You Are
2. Back On The Right Track
3. If It's Not Addin' Up...
4. The Same Thing (Makes You Laugh, Makes You Cry)

Side B:
1. Shine It On
2. It Takes All Kinds
3. Who's To Say?
4. Sheer Energy




Download Back On The Right Track from DivShare (23.71 MB)

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