Tuesday, November 04, 2003
"Celebration," Kool & the Gang (12/20/80)
Even - especially - listened to in this context, surrounded by its contemporaries, this still sounds like wedding-reception music. Robert "Kool" Bell and his band of merry men have made worse records (and better ones, too). But that doesn't make me like this slice of white-man Holiday Inn "funk" any more. In its conception and execution, it recalls some of the '80s worst, like Journey or even - horrors! - Styx. Manipulative, like a record designed by a marketing firm or focus group; no wonder it was such a massive hit. Docked a grade for feeling so damned oily. F
Even - especially - listened to in this context, surrounded by its contemporaries, this still sounds like wedding-reception music. Robert "Kool" Bell and his band of merry men have made worse records (and better ones, too). But that doesn't make me like this slice of white-man Holiday Inn "funk" any more. In its conception and execution, it recalls some of the '80s worst, like Journey or even - horrors! - Styx. Manipulative, like a record designed by a marketing firm or focus group; no wonder it was such a massive hit. Docked a grade for feeling so damned oily. F
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