Jerk Music Critic: Trouble Funk, In Times of Trouble

A solid if unexceptional effort from one of the better go-go acts out there. This is not nearly as tight as Drop the Bomb, and too much funk at the time (including this one) was succumbing to the more synthesized feel embodied by Bootsy and other such contemporaries, but it'll still get you moving almost just as well. "Spintime" is the synth-heavy lead in, but it's got an amusingly tricksy beat and the beat don't quit either there or in the title track immediately following, a bit more of a party jam with stronger vocals and brass. (That one-two punch is then followed by the pleasant "Share Your Love," old-school and conventional yet still satisfyingly smooth.) On the other hand, "Good Times" is funky but not all that special, and "Say What" doesn't get off the leash enough for a good go-go going on; plus, the track that really had me scratching my head was "Freaky Situation," Dyke Reed trying for a weird Lou Rawls-Barry White feel making references to his lover's smell (!) and saying she could be "my X-rated movie star, because I know how freaky you are." After that kind of creepiness it's good that "Funk N Roll" is there to close out the album, the hardest-edged track of all but the one with the best melody line and some witty commentary on changing music trends. This might not be the funk I'd reach for in my times of trouble, but while there are better examples of go-go out there (even from this very band) you'll still get good mileage out of this one. The CD reissue adds the instrumental backing of "Funk N Roll" but also two live show jam recordings apparently abridged from their Saturday Night Live live album. I usually find live bonus tracks tedious, and the recording quality is poor, but while they take a little while to get cooking they're actually rather fun for a party atmosphere and aren't just retreads of the earlier cuts. (Content: adult themes on "Freaky Situation.")

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Express Yourself

The Jerk Music Critic is a collection of amateur music reviews I wrote largely non-professionally between the 1990s and today. Some of these reviews are contemporary and some are retrospective, and a few are rather dated, but all are intended to be free-standing and permanent records of my completely worthless musical opinion. They are presented in no particular order and "new" reviews that occur may actually be simply prior ones I've only now transcribed. Older reviews have been edited to hopefully remove inaccuracies later revealed, as well as add brief content advisories (see "Smash the PMRC") and, where reissues exist with different tracks, brief commentaries on these later additions (the actual star review was not altered).

If you're looking for a specific artist, or just interested to see what I really liked (or really didn't), "When I Break Down" indexes reviews by artist and by number of stars awarded (see "Star Chart" for an explanation).

As we move deeper into the Internet music age where the album format might seem hopelessly antiquated, there is still some artistic value in the LP to those artists who still take advantage of it, and some of these recordings can only be properly appreciated in that context. I hope you enjoy these reviews and recommendations, and don't take them too seriously. — Cameron Kaiser

Star Chart

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
An instant classic. Substantially advances/d the state of the art, either technologically, stylistically, or (preferentially) both, and is outstanding music besides. Buy it.

🌟🌟🌟🌟
A excellent album. Nearly every song is a gem; nearly every piece is a winner. Falls short of 5 stars for want of that certain special something, but the difference is in impact, not in musical quality. Buy it.

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Solid. Mostly good songs with a few clinkers. Salvageable with a good playlist. Buy it cheap.

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Mixed. Some good songs stand out, but not enough to make it listenable as a whole. Buy the good songs on iTunes.

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Bad. One or two tracks of even decent quality. Buy the good songs cheap on iTunes.

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How did this get released?

Smash the PMRC

I don't advocate for censorship or unnuanced black and white stickers, but I do advocate for parents being able to raise kids in the way they see fit, which might include introducing albums of controversial yet artistic merit at a point in their child's life when they can better appreciate it. The content summaries are intended to be a very general guide, reflective of only my own personal sensibilities and mine alone, and do not substitute in any way for a parent actually sitting down and listening to the album themselves. If you excessively rely on my content advisories, then I'm the one raising your kid, and you really don't want that.