Customer Reviews

Ladies Night

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
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J.T. Taylor's voice and style is as smooth as strawberry cream-style yogurt and satin sheets. Kool and the Gang's music has always been clean, kool, sharp and on-point; "Ladies Night" is no exception. Twenty-some years later it still sounds good!

This album definitely provides how they are professional.It was more than a classic,and more importantly they changed their driving style with this amazing LP.It was a kind of revolution for them,it seemed this album might be jinxed to be successful.But they did well,before this album they had decided to choose new direction so according to this they added JT(The Voice),Earl Toon and Brazilian Music Producer Eumir Deodato.Furthermore ,first three single from this album which were Ladies Night, Too Hot reached on Top 10, Hangin Out appeared on Top 50. In my opinion all of the songs from the album deserved to place at NO 1!!! If you ask what my favourite track is,i would choose 'Got you into my life'.In a word all of the tracks are brilliant and fantastic.This would be the best RnB&dance album ,you've ever heard.If you feel ike dancin,just purchase it!!

I love this album!This album is new beginning for Kool&The Gang.J.T'S performance is great in this album.He is very new in group but great.'Ladies Night'is most beatiful song in this album,but dont forget 'Too Hot' and others.My favourite is'If You Feel Like Dancin'.All songs are great! If you are real Kool&The Gang fan you must buy this album.Its real classic!

Well as most folks already know, this is where Kool and the Gang decided to become more mainstream. In Ladies Night, you have a mostly all dance tune affair, with the lone exception being "Too Hot". Not only does the sound of the music change, but James "J.T." Taylor is introduced as the lead vocalist. Kool and the Gang were already twelve albums deep by the time this hit the shelves and radio back in '79. But it looks like 13 turned out to be their lucky number. The only downer is that the album is only six tracks long, but if you want it's something you could listen to over and over again. No filler whatsoever, this is a good breakthrough for the band. You get the unedited version of "Ladies Night", "Too Hot", and my personal selection "Hangin Out". If you're a die hard or casual fan, this is a must buy (or download).

Somewhere during this era Kool & The Gang became somewhat wards of the music press who insisted they'd "sold out" in many ways and public opinion altered accordingly,which is all too often the case. Even those people who are inclined to support any variety of funk seemed to find reason to give them flack for bringing in JT Taylor and adding a somewhat more pop element to their sound. It's fine to have an opinion. And it's equally important to understand that any artists need to change sometimes purely for creative reasons. One could see from their previous (and presently uncommon) album Everybody's Dancin' that both pop and disco were becomming an important new part of their sound. Even the album art. But it wasn't just JT Taylor's addition that took the cake for them in terms of the big changeover here. It was the production of Eumir Deodato that also made things different. So basically they were all set for a musical future that would,for better or worse change their careers.

First and foremost this album DOES NOT represent an escape from funk. Just a detour into another side of the genre. "Ladies Night",integrating both the four on the floor disco beat with jazz-funk styled keyboards and horns (as was Deodato's stock in trade) is a sure fire indicator of K&TG's full conversion from the hard edged "united funk" of their early/mid 70's music to the dance and sophistifunk of later in the decade. Primarily composed of uptempo music "If You Feel Like Dancing" is another excellent and in some cases fuller song than the title track,with some heavy rhythm section changes going on. "Hanging Out" does much the same thing along with a somewhat unsung favorite "Tonight's The Night". Now THERE'S a song that has a great build-atypical of a lot of music even in the disco-funk subgenre and features more of a variation of the bands old collective vocal style. The album ends with "Too Hot" with a great jazzy guitar riff and is honestly even stronger than I remember it being from a purely sentimental attachment.

Overall it's a fine collection of songs and an enthusiastic new beginning. No one seems the least bit unhappy about the direction that was being undertaken and honestly the production style has held up a lot better over the years than a lot of it's critics might've anticipated. It's also one of the most funk and groovecentric of the Deodato era K&TG albums (circa 1979-1982) and in a lot of ways represented a feat they would never achieve with him in quite the same way again. For one,this is still premoninantly a bass/guitar and horn oriented music. It isn't as built around textured keyboards and synthesizers as later so there's less opportunity to smooth out the production too much. Taken together this is solid proof that a funk bands first major attempt at integrating a dance friendly pop/R&B into their framework didn't have to be a failure for them. In this case,it very much worked to the bands advantage.