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 0461 - Seventeen Seconds

The Cure "Seventeen Seconds"

The Cure are another band that I was primarily familiar with through a few singles... that I wasn't overly keen on; but this is a pretty fantastic album. Aside from the odd wailing, dramatic vocal this is a pretty low-key affair with jangling but mostly unobtrusive guitar. There are odd spots of keyboards but they're used sparingly and in such a way that they add to the music without drawing attention to themselves. In fact everyone here seems to be just doing good work to serve the songs.

I can definitely hear the influence of this band on artists like early REM, a lot of 00s indie rockers, and even the early demos of the Smashing Pumpkins bear a startling resemblance to this collection of songs.