Sheet Music reveals the downside of the situation with a slew of well-below-the-grade numbers and feeble, redundant grooves.
The title track starts things off in desperate fashion as White interjects anesthetized Earth, Wind, & Fire horn riffs over a perfunctory "Rock the Boat" beat.
Influence works both ways, though, since Beck used the nasal vocal vamp from the end of this song to comedic effect on his Midnite Vultures cut "Hollywood Freaks."
The disappointments continue on Sheet Music as White warms to "The Theme From Love Boat" on "Lady, Sweet Lady," turns the already repetitive "I Believe in Love" into an extended mix, and gives calypso a disco turn on "Rum and Coke."
The latter cut does contain one of White's irresistible, sexual-advisory monologues, and infectious grooves do pop up sporadically, but these moments are rare.
Barry White's Sheet Music from 1980 wasn't recorded and produced on the eve of the French Revolution, of course not, but the association doesn't seem so far-fetched in relation to the "Disco Demolition Night" in the summer of 1979. That event basically marked the end of the Disco era.
Sheet Music isn't more drenched in strings and brass than Barry White's earlier records, but the record's title does emphasize one aspect of the Soul producer's recipe: lush orchestrations accompany the tight slurred funk grooves of the band, and then there's this deep, velvety, seductive, voice of a man who sounds like a meltdown of a hard-boiled sugardaddy and a Baptist preacher.
The carefree atmosphere of the songs suggests that nobody at Love Unlimited Records anticipated the abrupt change in taste of the record buying public. Sheet Music sedulously celebrates the intricately related glamorous worlds of the crystal ball and of rumpled satin bedding, as if the party or the passionate night could never come to an end.
The record, and also the following releases, got lost in the post-disco era. It has been underrated ever since, but lovers of Barry White's music will find here just the kind of beats like those they found on earlier releases. Only the short, silly Caribbean tune, Rum and Coke (Rum and Coca-Cola), is redundant.
Side A
A1. Sheet Music - 7:02
A2. Lady, Sweet Lady - 5:40
A3. I Believe In Love - 8:01
Side B
B1. Ghetto Letto - 5:53
B2. Rum And Coke (Rum And Coca-Cola) - 2:30
B3. She’s Everything To Me - 4:02
B4. Love Makin’ Music - 4:57
Credits
- Arranged By – Barry White, Gene Page
- Art Direction, Photography By – Glen Christensen
- Cover [Concept] – Barry White, Glen Christensen, Paul Politi
- Engineer – Frank Kejmar
- Executive-Producer – Barry White
- Lighting – Randy Lorentzen
- Other [Spiritual Advisor] – Larry Nunes
Notes
Release: 1980
Format: LP
Genre: Soul
Label: Unmimited Gold Records
Catalog# ULG 83927
Prijs: €4,99
Vinyl: Good
Cover: Good
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