“ABC” came as the second album from the Motown act The Jackson 5. Following on a year after their debut, which featured their breakthrough hit “I Want You Back”, they dropped more of their Pop-styled Soul and Funk material with a line up consisting of (the late) Michael, Jermaine, Tito, Jackie and Marlon line up to boost them even more with more of the music which made them such a significant act of their time.
1. “The Love You Save”
The album begins with what was the big follow-up single to the titular track from this album. You find that as with many that they performed around the time, much of it was based around a pretty much perfect structure which had been adapted from “I Want You Back”, but getting them making a much more lively tune from it instead for this energetic starter.
**Five Stars**
2. “On More Chance”
Moving it on a little but, you see that with this one the pace of it is dropped quite a bit in order to get them moving towards the watered-down Soul material. I felt that this dropped also came with a decrease in the quality as they get down to one which features a great vocal performance from Michael,
but little more than this.
**Two Stars**
3. “ABC”
Largely borrowing form the melodies and production of “I Want You Back”, this one gets them seemingly making a sequel to it on what is one of their most well-known tracks as you have them performing some perfectly-crafted Pop which absolutely everyone recognises. You can’t fault it and it props up the album well.
**Five Stars**
4. “2-4-6-8”
As the funky wah-wah guitaring comes through on this one, you get them kicking a freaky little jam which seems to work well off what came before it to maintain the high standards and have them draw you in through their use of Funk and Michael taking on a James Brown role with his spoken word shout-outs midway through, as with “ABC”.
**Five Stars**
5. “I’m The One You Need”
Here you find the first of the covers. Fr this one you see that they get into a little material from The Miracles and do it justice with their bubblegum adaptations to give it a bit more of a mainstream appeal to keep the majority of the listeners interested and connected to it. It seems to keep the album flowing and its familiarity has the ability to comfort listeners with their fresh style.
**Four Stars**
6. “Don’t Know Why I Love You”
For this one they get down to a bit of Stevie Wonder here to show more of where within their label they have found inspiration for their music, and you find that ere once again they do a good job with it and bring out the most impressive elements of it with Michael taking control and showing how it can be done.
Working with more of Stevie Wonder’s original material, this one has them taken over by a really impressive composition which has them brining forward their Funk with a bit of a more relaxed R&B style to give it a much milder feel to it. it is a strong one within the release and bound to impress as ever.
**Four Stars**
8. “True Love Can Be Beautiful”
Here they get into an original one to bring it all back to their progressive material, but I felt that it wasn’t really offering all that much as they came with something which sounded to be a rather standard filler from them with it being of a style which you could have predicted to have received from them.
**Two Stars**
9. “La-La”
With the original Delfonics version sampled many times over the years (by the likes of Ghostface Killa and even Shaggy) this one gets them turning towards the much more emotive Soul material which came through to a fair degree on their breakthrough. It is a heavy one and has Michael performing to a standard only a step down from that of “Who’s Lovin’ You”.
**Five Stars**
10. “I’ll Bet You”
With it being released just months earlier, The Jackson 5 immediately jump on top of a banger from Funkadelic’s self-entitled debut album here and show that they are just as capable of this soulful Funk material as any other s and so with them on a bit of a Psychedelic twist, you get them bringing the lively grooves through.
**Four Stars**
11. “I Found That Girl”
This was one which I wasn’t really tha sure of as the thing wasn’t really all tha impressed in what it presented from them and has it possibly causing a dip in the quality because it has Jermaine, rather then Michael on lead vocals and singing a pretty plain one about telling his mother he has found the girl he wants in his life.
**Two Stars**
12. “The Young Folks”
I thought that it was a real shame that the album should end with such a generic song as it does absolutely nothing for them here with them taking on the typical Motown style for this one and singing a Supremes song, and so although it may be a quicker one, it doesn’t really leave it on a high.
**Two Stars**
This is a massively inconsistent release from them as they swing interchangeably between the high quality tracks to those which take on a really generic format where it prevents you from staying on a high for all that long. There are some great covers and original tracks here which make it what it is, and I would recommend it for this reason, but just as with their debut, its shifting quality holds it back a little.
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