Grand Funk hit it big with We\u2019re An American Band <\/i>in 1973 \u2013 finally \u2013 and opted to keep Todd Rundgren as producer, Craig Frost on keyboards and the same cleaner sound as that hit album for the follow-up Shinin\u2019 On<\/i>. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s telling that the biggest hit was a cover of \u201cThe Loco-Motion,\u201d a stomping and fun pop-rocker that never gets old, but that elicited more interest than the somewhat dour originals. \u201cShinin\u2019 On\u201d also was a minor hit. But as tough and abrasive as it was, it was hardly the party band of \u201cWe\u2019re An American Band,\u201d let alone the sweaty funsters of \u201cAre You Ready?\u201d or the blue-collar epic author of \u201cLoneliness\u201d or \u201cCloser To Home.\u201d It\u2019s new territory, not an easy thing for a band on its ninth album, and it\u2019s ripe for rediscovery if you\u2019ve forgotten about it.<\/p>\n
The other six songs veer from soul to blues-rock to \u201cCarry Me Through,\u201d a sort of apocalyptic rocker drench in reverb, Mark Farner hectoring from the great beyond while guitar and keyboard runs sprinkle in and out, buoyed only by a synth wash over the whole thing. It\u2019s quite depressing and layered and portends the underrated Born To Die <\/i>album, as well as the rather bleak lyrics Farner would come to write in the next few years.<\/p>\n
The schism between the serious echo-laden rockers and songs like \u201cLoco-Motion,\u201d the Stonesy \u201cPlease Me,\u201d and the flat-out soul-rock of \u201cTo Get Back In\u201d makes for an inconsistent listen, but it\u2019s rarely an uninteresting one, especially to fans of the group. Those who came on board in 1973 likely weren\u2019t bowled over by this one, nor would they be today, as it returns the group to making music on its own terms (\u00e0 la Phoenix or E Pluribus Funk) rather than looking for a hit single. <\/p>\n
\u201cGettin\u2019 Over You\u201d is a sort of cross between \u201cShinin\u2019 On\u201d and the previous album\u2019s \u201cBlack Licorice,\u201d bookended by a solid rock piece but falling apart in the middle between a squealing solo section and Farner\u2019s shouting; it and the moribund and weird \u201cMr. Pretty Boy\u201d are the weakest spots on the disc. The closer \u201cLittle Johnny Hooker,\u201d though, is one of the band\u2019s better album tracks, a gritty blues-rocker with a soaring Farner guitar solo and a boogie beat that moves into an acid-rock closing section, where the echo-drenched harmonies from the rest of the album return with Farner\u2019s multi-layered voice. If nothing else, these guys always had a way with their album closing songs.<\/p>\n
Yet the album lacks a certain spark, much in the way the dreadful Survival <\/i>did (there, too, the hit song was a cover instead of an original), and while this is good enough to warrant inclusion in any fan\u2019s catalog, it\u2019s hardly the band\u2019s best effort. Perhaps it was due to exhaustion, or to Rundgren\u2019s production influence, but when the spark has to be generated with studio trickery instead of truly good songs and rock attitude, there\u2019s an issue under the surface. NOTE:<\/b> Subsequent re-releases of the disc include the bluesy B-side \u201cDestitute And Losin,\u2019\u201d which is of a piece with the rest of the album (reverb-drenched, depressing lyrics, deliberate pacing) and an unnecessary remix of the title track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":33002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5829],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-44783","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-grand-funk","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44783"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}