a couple classics & a bunch of filler

Kool & the Gang's 1979 album "Ladies Night" was their first album with James "J.T." Taylor on board as lead vocalist, & henceforth, it marks a key transition point in the group's career. Now, don't get the wrong idea--Kool & the Gang do have their share of great songs to their credit, but this particular album is so thin & slight, it's a joke. Add to this the fact that the album runs less than 34 minutes in the first place, & it's totally obvious they were short on material. In the end, the album has a pair of classics which, unsurprisingly, were both released as singles & went gold, & the rest of the tracks are filler city, & often tedious beyond all belief. On the positive side, the title track that opens the album is a total classic--it's relentless, intricately detailed, ultra-funky, & crammed with hooks, and it's an excellent showcase for Taylor's smooth vocals (the way the song layers hooks on top of a pair of looping chord keyboard chords makes it reminiscent of "Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs); the single version that consistently turns up on compilations does not do this track justice--you really need this track as it appears here, in its full-length album version. The lush, downbeat ballad "Too Hot" is also terrific, however, unlike the title track, "Too Hot" is actually better heard in its single edit--the album version has an overlong, rambling fade, & the single version solves this problem by simply fading out over a minute earlier. Interestingly, and perhaps tellingly, these two aforementioned gems credit drummer George M. Brown as the primary writer. The rest of the tracks credit Ronald Bell, aka Khalis Bayyan, as the primary writer, and they all leave a lot to be desired--"Got You Into My Life" is a corny, sluggish ballad; "If You Feel Like Dancin'" is shallow & bland; "Hangin' Out" starts off sounding so much like the subsequent smash hit "Celebration" that a casual fan might totally get the two songs mixed up, and overall it sounds tired & has a "rock, shake" chant that gets repeatedly endlessly to extremely annoying effect; "Tonight's The Night" doesn't even seem to feature Taylor, & it does have a nice, hypnotic, sexy groove, but they didn't bother to develop the track fully, & yet it still runs on for over 7 minutes, repeating itself over & over & over again to headache-inducing effect. Now, I'm giving this album a little slack--this CD version was released as a very respectably priced budget line disc, & if you come across it for a couple bucks somewhere, "Too Hot" & the full length title track justify the price on their own. Unfortunately though, the band was either too spent or too lazy to come up with strong material for the rest of the album.

Ear candy

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!

WHERE'S THE ORIGINAL COVER GONE?

SUPER CLEAN REMASTERED SOUND...I MISS THE "VINYL" ECOO...BUT WAS A GOOD JOB GUYS!.
GREAT MUSIC (OF COURSE).