War

The biggest selling album of 1973, The World Is a Ghetto expertly combines War's RnB melodies with Latin percussion, jazzy solos and enough SoCal multicultural harmony to fill entire seasons of Room 222 and Chico and the Man combined. The groovy chant "Cisco Kid" is the remembered hit, but an edited version of the extended title track also made it to the Top 10 charts (and "Where Was You At" was also popular on FM radio -- on both rock and RnB formats). Overall the album, like Santana's early work, still holds a groovy, stoned vibe. Jam rockers should dig this one.

War has progressed far and fast since they disassociated themselves from Eric Burdon, with
whom they had committed the all-time War atrocity, "Spill The Wine." Relieved of the
necessity of shouldering this Burdon, they've developed a full, luscious sound that's
engagingly funky. All Day Music saw the evolvement of this distinctly urban sound to a point
just short of proficiency--War could talk but hadn't yet mastered the language.... More >

According to all my own theories, I should love this big Afro-roots band with the number one album, but it's hard. Jazz pretensions are one problem--"City, Country, City" has a firm bottom, but it's thirteen minutes long, and up top is mush. And if "That's What Love Will Do" was Vanilla Fudge, "Four Cornered Room" makes me think they're trying to start their own genre--blackstrap-rock, they could call it. (Grade: B)