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Album reviews Music

SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE

Rating: NNNN



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The release of a career-spanning Sly and the Family Stone box set seems decades overdue, but perhaps to mark the 30th anniversary of the Bay Area soul posse’s 1967 debut, their seven albums have been remastered with slightly upgraded sound and spruced up with new liner notes and bonus material. The discs are available individually, but you’ll save cash by splurging for the limited-run set. Those only familiar with the group’s big three – Dance To The Music, There’s A Riot Goin’ On and Stand! – will discover incredibly great songs they’ve missed on the other four, like the proto-funk blast of Underdog that opens A Whole New Thing, and the George Clinton-inspiring Trip To Your Heart, which LL Cool J fans will appreciate as the sample source of Mama Said Knock You Out. The Fresh album, released in 1973 while the once tight-knit unit was imploding in a hedonistic haze, swaps the hand-clapping and booty-shaking anthems of the past for provocative mid-tempo soul jams that stand up remarkably well today. The promise of “unreleased bonus tracks” rings hollow when you find out that they’re mostly alternate takes, edits and instrumental versions of available songs rather than amazing lost tunes rumoured to exist… or even hit singles like Hot Fun In The Summertime, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) and its flipside, Everybody Is A Star, which have been strangely omitted.

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