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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Arrangements and Vocals...Wanna dance?, July 16, 2003
Motown should have released this set with the original cover art of "Dancing Machine" on the front, it was definitely eye-catching with its bright red/orange/yellow-colored drawings of the boys' faces in front of a purple background. Instead, these 2-for-1's put miniature pictures of the original covers inside the booklets. But musically, this disc is definitely worth listening to. Musically, this literally picks up where 1973's "Get it Together" left off; the closing track from GIT was the title track to "Dancing Machine," released just shy of Michael's 16th birthday in August, 1974. "I Am Love" opens the album and is the closest you'll hear the Jackson 5 come to pure rock and roll. Though it starts out as a candle-light ballad sung by Jermaine, it slowly builds into a hurricane of psychadelic guitar and synth. The nearly 8 minute opus fades out on an uptempo funk jam with vocal improvs. The track is a very daring statement to open this very non-traditional J5 record. It follows, oddly enough, with a crisp, brassy swing tune called "Whatever You Got, I Want." The play between the guitar and the horns makes for another unique sound unheard from the group before, and the background vocals are reminiscent to Gladys Knight and the Pips. The third track, "She's a Rhythm Child" is lyrically similar and a preface to the title track, which is the next song. The first time I heard "The Life of the Party" I thought my tape (this was a few years ago!!) was broken, because of the bubbly sound and very high-speed and high notes. The song features great music and vocals from the group and definitely should have been a single. Another high speed, hi-hat driven track, "What you don't know" comes next. Lyrically weak, it's more for your feet than your mind. Tracks 3 through 6 make the middle of the album flow so well because of their placement; all four are about or for the dance floor, and each track contains a few elements that fit the next song perfectly. What "Get it Together" lacked was a good love ballad, instead containing three love-gone-wrong songs. This time, "If I Don't Love You This Way" and "It All Begins and ends with Love" are back-to-back knockouts, absolutely great harmonies and on the latter, a chance to hear solo lines from Jermaine, Jackie and Marlon as well. The album closes, fittingly, with another dance track, "Mirrors of my Mind."
"Moving Violation," the J5's last official release from Motown before moving to Epic. Though it did not fare as well as its predecessor, the album should not go unrecognized. It opens with another long, hyper track, this time a frantic cover of the Supremes' "Forever Came Today." This is the first blatantly obvious example of vocal overdubs of the backing vocals; there are definitely female singers doing some of them, and that is one reason the Jacksons were unhappy with their later years at Motown. Aside from that, the song features impressive production and soulful stylings from both Michael and Jermaine. The dark, string and guitar-heavy title track is good. "(You were made) Especially for Me" starts out in a similar vein, with brass, strings and even flutes that would have fit the "Shaft" soundtrack, but then alternates between sunny choruses and harder-grooving verses. The album's best song, "Honey Love" is one of my favorite J5 songs ever. Falsetto background vocals are pit against a tight arrangement of fuzz guitar, trombones blowing as hard as possible, staccato trumpets, busy cymbals, and a catchy bass line. The "ah-ah-ahhhhh" bridge with Michael's vocal improvs builds to a less intense but busier groove to fade the song out with. The gentle, piano/string/trombone/sitar(!)-led song "All I do is Think of You" is reminscent of the Stylistics or Delphonics, and reminds us that these boys are still young, as the song is about a high school crush. "Breezy" finds Michael singing almost too high; the group was not always given songs that fit his changing voice, and this is especially true on Michael's 1975 solo album, "Forever, Michael" (get it if you can find it, it's worth it!). "Call of the Wild" is a good rocker of a song featuring social insights of the time as well as the theme of moving on ("Call of the wild's calling me"), which fits considering this would be the last J5 album while signed to Motown. The albums title itself is reflective of that, since Joe Jackson had his boys signed to Epic before their Motown contract was up. The last track opens with some lonely piano pluckings, church organ-synths, and thunder giving way to a dizzying keyboard. As the title suggests, Time was running out at Motown, but definitely didn't expire without a nice last impression from the Jackson 5ive. The bonus tracks included are the soft, sweet, lamenting "Through Thick and Thin" and a dance mix of "Forever Came Today," basically eliminating some of the vocals from the original.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The mature J-5 delivers again, August 27, 2005
This 2-fer CD, DANCING MACHINE and MOVING VIOLATION, is a continuation of the musical style that the "new" and now-older Jackson 5 had given us on GET IT TOGETHER, an excellent album where every cut clicks.
Although DANCING MACHINE (1974), entitled as such to capitalize on the success of the single (which was originally on GIT), has several different producers, they all attempted to keep the same theme in mind: to come up with funky and exciting sounds for the J-5, and that they do. Opening with the fantastic nearly eight-minute funk/rock dance groove of "I Am Love", you know that you are in for something special. Jermaine primarily handles the leads on this song, with Michael coming at the bridge. "Whatever You Got, I Want" is bluesy and has a slinky-type of feel with great lyrics. "She's a Rhythm Child" is basically a knockoff of "Dancing Machine", but it's not all that bad. The single edit of "Dancing Machine" is next, and nothing more need be added about the extraordinary appeal of this song.
Next is the J-5 dance classic, the quick-paced "Life of the Party", an all too-short song I would love to hear remixed to be a bit longer. "What You Don't Know" is another funky dance jam, then we have two great ballads back to back: "If I Don't Love You This Way" (Michael on lead) and "It All Begins And Ends With Love" (Jermaine on lead). DM closes out with "Mirrors of My Mind", keeping the funk/dance theme intact.
Most of the tracks on MOVING VIOLATION were produced by Brian Holland of Holland-Dozier-Holland fame. Holland had produced a great solo album for Michael entitled FOREVER MICHAEL earlier that year (1975), and it was a good move to extend that collaboration to producing some solid tracks for the J-5. Even though by this time, the brothers were not happy with Motown's treatment of them, MV is one of the best albums that they ever recorded. Not as funky as GIT or DM, but it feature mostly smooth, infectious dance tracks. It was technically their last on Motown and Jermaine's last appearance with his brothers, so they did go out with a bang. An old Supremes track from 1967 that was not a hit for those ladies but did fairly well for the J-5, "Forever Came Today" was the big hit from this album. Reworked into a driving 6 minute disco anthem, "Forever" will have you looking for your dancing shoes. "Moving Violation" is another funky disco cut, with clever lyrics...reminds you of "The Love You Save" theme-wise. The sexy dance tracks "(You Were Made) Especially for Me", "Honey Love" and "Body Language" (another well-known track from this album) increasingly moved the brothers into more mature waters. Most notably, "Especially For Me" has a hint of the Philly Sound that the Jacksons would take on their first two albums for Epic/CBS. Michael's vocals on the gorgeously harmonious "All I Do Is Think of You" are simply beautiful and further proves that his voice made a seamless transition from boyhood to adolescence. "All I Do" is the only ballad on MV and a Quiet Storm radio classic, and still extremely popular today. The final three tracks, "Breezy", "Call of the Wild" and "Time Explosion" has futuristic touches of lite jazz and rock, material the brothers began to get into way back on GIT and on "I Am Love" from DM.
Two bonus tracks are included as well: a sweet ballad with Jermaine on lead vocals, "Through Thick and Thin", sounds like a throwback to the SKYWRITER album - and another mix of "Forever Came Today", although I can't really hear much difference between this one and the original, except that the second half of the song is completely instrumental.
These two albums together are a perfect combination! As much as I enjoy the J-5's earlier classic work, I feel DM/MV are far more interesting and artistically challenging. If you love dance music and the Jackson 5, then this is the CD for you!! Party over here!!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of their highly underrated albums., July 17, 2006
I don't really understand Mowtown sometimes and this is why. While the Jackson 5 have had many hits with the label its seem as though Berry Gordy and the other label heads forget to promote songs that are actually better than the more famous singles. Case in point, the songs "Moving Violation" and "(You Were Made)Especially For Me" should have been hit songs of 1975. For some reason they always thought that other songs were better. They done a great job as a whole but sometimes they really leave you thinking. "Forever Came Today","All I Do Is Think Of You", and "Honey Love" are also great songs that were actually singles(except the latter) but did not receive the recognition that they deserve.
To me I actally believe this is their best album of their Motown releases. Every song is great and their is no filler here(believe it or not). Michael's vocals were in peak form, and Jermaine's coleads are remarkable as usual. If your a true Jackson fan or fanatic this album is a must have. The Dancing Machine album is also exceptional with standouts being the afformentioned title song, "I Am Love","Life Of The Party", and "Whatever You Got I Want". These are the last to albums with Motown before they left (minus Jermaine and with brother Randy) to sign with Philadelphia International/Epic. Two great albums one great disc, and a ton of hits you'll be singing for a while!!!
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is one of The Jackson 5's 
