Day 0492 - The Poet

Bobby Womack "The Poet" (1981)

This is so funky it is painful!  According to the book, Bobby had had a bit of a decline in his popularity towards the later 70s and needed a win (seems to be a recurring theme for a lot of the albums here..  'one last roll of the dice that ends up paying off').  Towards the end of the 70s he had wound up on a much smaller record label, he had suffered issues with drugs, he had even tragically lost his infant son.

Bobby comes on strong with this album; the first track "So many sides of you" has an almost reggae feel but with a solid funk base.  The rest of the tracks move between hard funk grooves and Barry White-esque bedroom vibes.... plus, can this man rock a lavender suit, or what!

Day 0459 - Peter Gabriel III (AKA "Melt")

Peter Gabriel "Peter Gabriel III" (AKA "Melt") (1980)

 
Gabriel was well clear of his Genesis 'Prog' sound, and with his first two relatively quirky and eccentric solo albums also behind him, he seemed content to settle into a groove as a purveyor of interesting and innovative art pop-rock in the vein of Berlin-Bowie and Brian Eno. He even uses Eno-regular Robert Fripp on guitar, along with his Genesis bandmate (and vocal replacement) Phil Collins.

PG experiments with world music (sampling African chants for one song) and new technology, playing around with drum machines, and studio trickery to produce an album that seems a collision of human with machine.