Sly & The Family Stone’s debut release, “A Whole New Thing” came out in 1967 and it was an influential album for the Funk group, headed by Sly Stone, and has him with brother, Freddie, sister Vet, and other friends coming together to showcase their Psychedelic Soul, and Funk tunes, which were still in their developmental stages at the time when this was released.
1. “Underdog”
They kick the album off with the best tune on the whole thing, which takes from "Frere Jacque", and adapts this to some brass work before the tune breaks out into a big Funk recording to show exactly what they are about, and what the music is likely to contain as you go through it.
**Five Stars**
2. “If This Room Could Talk”
The lively riffs which you hear in this one have the high energy level maintained, and from here you have them take it to a lot less moving work, but it still engages the listener with what occurs within it as Sly leads on vocals and the rest back him up with relevant degree of intensity. The horns in this stick in your head,
and the rest just works off this.
**Three Stars**
3. “Run, Run, Run”
I have to say that I really wasn’t feeling the way that things turned on this one as they seems to up the tempo, but in spite of this, it seems as though they lost the idea of what they were trying to do, and ended up with a pretty poor quality one as they experiment with the eccentric Psychedelic style, and this just doesn’t work for me at all.
**Two Stars**
4. “Turn Me Loose”
Things get a bit better with this one as it seems as though they have a lot more of an idea with where they are going on this one, and with them doing another lively tune, they attempt to take influence from the Pop sounds which Motown were producing in order to win over support on this debut release.
**Three Stars**
5. “Let Me Hear it From You”
On this one you have them returning to the Psychedelic work, and in this case, the Funk is toned down as they choose to do a Blues number to add to the variety of the album, and in my opinion it really adds to the thing for this reason, but the quality of it isn’t really there for me.
**Two Stars**
6. “Advice”
I was annoyed by how short this one was, as the percussion in this tune is just amazing, and it really pulls you into the thing to make you take notice of what is going on with it. From this, you have a tune which is fairly done, but nothing compares to the drumming, by Greg Errico, which could easily be used for a modern Hip Hop track.
**Four Stars**
7. “I Cannot Make It”
I was impressed by the fact that they chose to stick with what was heard in the last one, to a certain degree as you hear even more of the heavy beats, which make you want to hear more from them, and it means that you connect with the tune, and it seems to offer a lot more for this reason as they try out some new things for Funk, and hold back on using bass as the main instrument in conveying this.
**Four Stars**
8. “Trip To Your Heart”
I believe that much of my enjoyment for this one comes form the fact that it is sampled in the opening of LL Cool J’s “Mama Said knock You Out”, and this influence is something which is likely to have looked upon it highly of this before they even got into the tune properly, but I thought that they were able to get into the thing well without the standard dropping even a little.
**Four Stars**
9. “I Hate To Love Her”
This one has them lower the energy of the thing, and I believe that this meant I was just bored when it started up as it just dampens the spirits of it all, and takes you back to the poor half of the album. The album is inconsistent, and this is an example of where it falls down when substituting Funk for Psychedelic Soul and Blues.
**Two Stars**
10. “Bad Risk”
This is a Funk track from them, and for most of the time I like it when they do just this, but in this case it just isn’t getting to where it should be as there is something which holds it back a little, and it means I could never fully get into it. The music fits the theme of the tracks, and it empowers it (just not enough to excite me though).
**Three Stars**
11. “That Kind Of Person”
Here is a tune which has them return to a bluesy type of thing, and personally, I didn’t think that they ever really captured the feelings of it when they did it, but the lyrics to it are well-written, and should have been used to a better composed tune from them.
12. “Dog”
Ending the album off, you have them returning to the high quality of the start of the album, and you can’t deny that that excite you in the stop-start format of the tune, and it is built on lots of jumpy percussion to keep you involved and wanting more from them. It is a good way to finalise things on a clearly inconsistent record.
**Five Stars**
There are a few fun tunes on this album, but the weaker Soul ones balance this out, and although some may say that this gives it some variation, it doesn’t really reflect the potential they possess, and so when the tempo drops, the quality general declines too. I would only get this if you really understand the early days of Funk, and the late seventies and early eighties were very different to this form of Funk in 1967.
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Underdog If This Room Could Talk Run Run Run Turn Me Loose Let Me Hear It From You ... more
Advice I Cannot Make It Trip To Your Heart I Hate To Love Her Bad Risk That Kind Of Person Dog Underdog (single B-side version mono) (Bonus Track) Let Me Hear It From...
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