1. Cloud Nine (1969)
Best known for their silky soul vocals and smooth-stepping routines, the Temptations were firmly entrenched as the undisputed kings of Barry Gordy's Motown stable when cutting-edge producer Norman Whitfield walked into the studio and announced that it was time to shake things up.
The resulting freakout became the first half of the stellar Cloud Nine, an album that would become one of the defining early funk sets, with songs that not only took Motown in a new direction, but helped to shape a genre as well. On one side and across three jams, Whitfield and the Temptations would give '70s-era funk musicians a broad palette from which to draw inspiration.
The title track, with its funky soul bordering on psychedelic frenzy, was an audacious album opener, and surely gave older fans a moment's pause. Only two more songs rounded out side one: an incredibly fresh take on "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," which jazzed up the vocals, brought compelling percussion to the fore, and relegated the piano well into the wings, and "Run Away Child, Running Wild," an extravagant nine-minute groove where the sonics easily surpassed the vocals.
After shaking up the record-buying public with these three masterpieces, the Temptations brought things back to form for side two. Here, their gorgeous vocals dominated slick arrangements across seven tracks which included "Hey Girl" and the masterful "I Need Your Lovin'." Funk continued to percolate -- albeit subtly -- but compared to side one, it was Temptations business as usual.
It was this return to the classic sound, however, which ultimately gave Cloud Nine its odd dynamic. The dichotomy of form between old and new between sides doesn't allow for a continuous gel.
But the brash experimentation away from traditional Motown on the three seminal tracks which open the disc shattered the doorway between past and present as surely as the decade itself imploded and smooth soul gave way to blistering funk. (AMG)
01. Cloud Nine
02. I Heard It Through The Grapevine
03. Runaway Child, Running Wild
04. Love Is A Hurtin' Thing
05. Hey Girl
06. Why Did She Leave Me (Why Did She Have To Go)
07. I Need Your Lovin'
08. Don't Let Him Take Your Love From Me
09. I Gotta Find A Way (To Get You Back)
10. Gonna Keep On Tryin' Till I Win Your Love
Producer: Norman Whitfield
Label: Gordy / Tamla Motown
Release Date: Feb 1969
2. Puzzle People (1969)
Both The Temptations and producer Norman Whitfield were at the top of their form with 1969's Puzzle People, which captures the group in the midst of their rock-influenced "socially conscious" period.
While the lead-off cut, "I Can't Get Next To You", was a potent R&B dance-floor filler, elsewhere the album was dotted with "relevant" tunes such as "Message From A Black Man" (not nearly as militant as it sounds), "Don't Let The Joneses Get You Down", and the "life-in-prison" epic "Slave", complete with plenty of fuzztone and wah-wah and enough panning to make George Clinton dizzy.
But while the material and the production is a bit dated, Whitfield and his crew certainly caught The Funk Brothers on a great run when they cut these sessions, with the musicians blending the swagger and confidence of rock with a soundly funky undertow and chops to spare. And as for the Temptations themselves, if new lead vocalist Dennis Edwards lacked the elan of David Ruffin, he had power to spare, and the group's harmonies and shared vocals found room for both smooth precision and streetwise grit.
While short on hits past the opening track (and padded with well-executed but hardly essential covers of "Hey Jude" and "Little Green Apples", Puzzle People is still the work of a great vocal group firing on all cylinders and getting inspired support in the studio, and it's one of the group's strongest late-60's efforts. (AMG)
11. I Can't Get Next To You
12. Hey Jude
13. Don't Let The Joneses Get You Down
14. Message From A Black Man
15. It's Your Thang
16. Little Green Apples
17. You Don't Love Me No More
18. Since I've Lost You
19. Running Away (Ain't Gonna Help You)
20. That's The Way Love Is
21. Slave
Producer: Norman Whitfield
Label: Gordy / Tamla Motown
Release Date: Sep 1969
Codec: Flac
Compression Level: 5
Quality: High
CD-rip by alekow (EAC and Flac)
Covers Included (400dpi)
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