KOOL & THE GANG — Celebrate! (review)

KOOL & THE GANG — Celebrate! album cover Album · 1980 · Pop/Art Song/Folk Buy this album from MMA partners
2/5 ·
js
Kool and the Gang started out as one of the more innovative funk bands on the scene, often mixing jazz and space rock sounds with hard syncopated rhythms that were ahead of their time. By the time the late 70s rolled around they had dropped all that and were going after the big bucks by churning out crowd pleasing pop. They really connected when their hit single “Celebration” hit the airwaves in 1980. Possibly one of the catchiest riffs of all time, topped with a hard to miss sing along party anthem, this song will be pure gold for the writers and their heirs for years to come. If you are thinking the rest of this album, “Celebrate”, is pure fluff hastily thrown together to support their hopeful hit single, you are pretty much correct. Unfortunately none of the other songs on here have near the hooks of their big smash hit, and the songs lyrics become almost laughable in their attempt to keep the same positive vibe going with one clumsy line after another. One odd exception is the tune “Brown vs. Brown” in which the writer tells a no-nonsense tale of receiving his divorce papers, not sure how that one got on here, maybe later he realized this was a cause for ‘celebration‘.

Recommended for vinyl DJs who work the suburban wedding gigs and corporate holiday parties, you know damn well someone is going to want to hear “Celebration”, and if you can’t find the 45, this LP works great because they put the song at the first of side one because they knew no one would ever play the other songs. One last thing, whats up with that album cover, ...I mean really.
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