Customer Reviews

Groove-A-Thon

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of Isaac's most underrated and overlooked projects. It had a dismal run on the charts and failed to make it big. Nonetheless, it should have done much better- now that it's available on CD, it may be "rediscovered" and recognized as one of Hayes' best 1970s releases. While the title track is tedious and lacklustre, the other songs are very good.

Groove-A-Thon from Isaac Hayes had to be one of the most criminally overlooked albums, in my opinion. i mean, how can you NOT move to "rock me easy baby?" i think this is one of those albums that, hopefully people will go back and search for ' cause there are some cool grooves on this one.

what ever happened to the original master tapes? normally iwould give four and a half but the sound quality is really frustating.
let us hope that for future releases of such great albums like "disco connection" or "new horizon" the original master tapes will be discovered

In my own history this is an album that instantly caught my attention. My dad owned a vinyl copy of this which featured an amazing poster of the great cover that graced the wall of my bedroom most of my teens. Well as for the music.....well this is where everything Isaac Hayes had been doing for the past seven years. Musically disco was coming into it's own in 1976 and so was funk. Both were meeting at the crossroads and,since Isaac contributed so much to the development of both musics he fully embraced the disco/funk style on this album. The title cut is by far the best track on this album. With it's strong chunky rhythm guitars,horn charts and strong syncopation the 9 minute+ tune has some great keyboard parts in the middle and jams soo far it almost plows down everything else on the album. It's the kind of tune during an album session that's almost hard to beat. Indeed that's true to an extent. All the same everything else on this album is excellent. "Rock Me Baby" grooves slower of course but it really does rock again in the finest tradition of disco funk,although not exactly in the same league as the title track but it just drips sensuality and sheer power. "Wish You Were Here (You Ought To Be Here" and "Make A Little Love To Me" are both two of his finest slow jams and make a nice cool down after the proceedings. "We've Got A Whole Lot Of Love" goes for no-holds-barred,string drenched soul-dance flavors that relates even stronger to what was then just blooming into late 70's disco. Forgotton for a number of years for many reasons it's a joy and delight to have this available on CD as it not only represents Isaac Hayes in the place where he's fully embracing the style he'd helped to create. I hope that people who listen to this album are able to realize these facts and even if not,the music will speak for itself.