5 Stars for Moving Violation/3 for Dancing Machine

Moving Violation is one funky album. Produced by Brian Holland it has that distinct Motown sound from the 60's. First up is a cover of "Forever Came Today". The Supremes version is slowed down and takes a bit getting used to if you're only familiar with this discofied take on the song. Michael and Jermaine trade off vocals and the song just rocks. "Moving Violation" comes next and it is another foot stomper. Michael sings about a girl who has done him wrong and thats a "Moving Violation" she "should have made him stop". Nice play on words, just like "Stop, in the Name of Love". Great Holland/Dozier/Holland influence. "You Were Made Especially for Me", "Honey Love" and "Body Language" keep the beat going next and are made for the dance floor. The only ballad on the album is "All I Do is Think of You" and it is a good one. All about a high school crush. "Breezy" comes next nice mid tempo number then comes "Call of the Wild" and "Time Explosion". Both are up tempo and awesome ways to end the album. "Dancing Machine" was not half as ambitious as "Moving Violation". Besides the title song the only other songs worth having are "I Am Love" nearly 8 minutes of pure funk/rock/blues that is a J-5 standout, and "Whatever You Got I Want". Not surprisingly these were all singles. The rest are luke-warm ballads and "Dancing Machine" wannabes. Seems like Motown rush released this on the heels of success of "Dancing Machine" as that was on the previous and far superior album "Get It Together"...

Great Arrangements and Vocals...Wanna dance?

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.

The end of an era.

To start off, the "Dancing Machine" album I felt had too many different sounds on it. Maybe because it had a lot of different producers. But, Hal Davis's title track for the album. Seemed to have given the album exactly what it needed in order for it to keep up the momentum. On the other hand, "Moving Violations" seemed to be a much better album. In my opinion I think it was one of the best albums the group ever made for motown. The whole album was produced by Eddie Holland of HDH fame. From the remake of "Forever came today"(which is one of my favorites) to the romp shaken' "Body language" to the smooth ballad "All I do is think of you". This album is slammmmm! Even tho' this was there last album they went out on top.