J. Geils Band

On their initial output, J. Geils possessed a raunchy style somewhere between the Stones and vintage Aerosmith. But on 1973's Ladies Invited, the band tempered its aggression with compressed production and a pop-funk vibe more in line with the E Street Band, Hall and Oates, Steely Dan and Brit pub rockers such as Brinsley Schwarz. It's all very mid-'70s and very urban. That said, few bands write better barroom ballads than J. Geils. Crank up "That's Why I'm Thinking of You" and pass out crying.

Ladies Invited is the J. Geils Band's best album since their first. The beauty of the J. Geils
Band was in its distillation of years of live performing into a rough, recorded-in-three-days
introductory statement that suggested so many directions for the future. Those included
the beginnings of the Peter Wolf-Seth Justman songwriting team, the potential progression
from blues through R&B, through Sixties Stones' rock, up to and including just a ta... More >

So much better than Bloodshot that for a while I thought it was something special, and in a way it is--an r&b album that includes a song about wind chimes. Would they were all as tuneful. Still, a lot of the ersatz-funk macho has disappeared from the lyrics, Peter Wolf's singing has picked up several layers of sweetness and nuance, and a couple of times they even try a harmony-group move. Inspirational Title: "The Lady Makes Demands." (Grade - B)