Still funky enough, but it feels less daring, and consequently I found it less thrilling; as brilliant and talented as these guys obviously were, and this record’s more evidence of it, the Funk Brothers simply weren’t built to create hit records on their own after all. (6)
Play it, and thrill to it, and reflect on the men who made it – but excellent though this is, if you seek the true monument to the greatness of the Funk Brothers, it’s already all around you every time you turn on the radio. (8)
Who is this for? Who is it meant to satisfy? It’s neither pop nor jazz; it’s not edgy enough to please either the musicians or their intended audience of hardened hep cats, it’s not fluffy enough to please pop-loving tweens or their parents, and it’s not got Marvin Gaye on it, which was the only thing that kept the corny song afloat the first time round. It’s not a disaster, but – as appealing as that guitar is – I can’t really imagine myself ever going back to play this again. (4)
A harmless curio, something to play once for its novelty value and then go back to the original. Completely pointless, and almost defiantly inessential. (5)
If Marvelettes fans weren’t likely to be moved by this ill-judged and poorly-executed cover, it’s equally unlikely any hardened jazz cats were particularly impressed either. We can only hope Earl himself was having some fun doing this throwaway jam, splashing his instrumental karaoke all over a fine band track, because I’m not sure anyone else enjoyed the experience. (3)
It’s alright, but the organ is annoying, and it mainly serves as a reminder of Motown’s foolishness in not issuing one of the vocal versions instead. (5)
It serves no real purpose other than to let three prominent Brothers do their thing for posterity, it doesn’t really go anywhere, and it’s great fun as opposed to just great – but there are moments that set the pulse racing, and you don’t really want it to end. Not as quickly as it does, anyway.(7)
Probably not what Van Dyke or the other Funk Brothers had in mind when Motown said they were greenlighting a house band instrumental single, and it’s not really anything all that special – but it’s plenty of fun, it’s energetic, it’s good to dance to, and it sounds considerably better when you’re drunk, so it does everything it’s meant to. Still, if there’s an argument that there should be more of these, and less of (say) the Marvelettes, it’s not an argument anyone should really be making. (6)
If the technology and Motown’s budget had allowed for an EP or a 12″ 45 single, this might have been one of the great early Motown treasures; instead, hacked peremptorily in half and parcelled into chunks too small to sate the appetite, it ends up little more than an unsatisfactory promo for an album you can’t now physically buy. (6)
You can almost hear dancehall audiences groaning Awwwww! as the fade slashes in; we were just getting into that, they’d have grumbled. It’s just too short, and divorced from its proper context (and two-thirds of its length), it doesn’t have the chance to make an impression. (6)
The stupidly annoying bits mean this can’t really be considered as being on a par with Xmas Twist, but the band performance is nearly enough to outweigh them. (3)
Motown Junkies 