augustus 30, 2022

Mother’s Finest - Mother Factor (LP) (1978) - €4,99


Fourth album from the multi-facet Mother’s Finest, but it’s a fairly different beast altogether. Indeed Mother Factor sees the funk-disco dimension of the band get the lion’s share of the album, and the hard-rock direction almost reduced to nil. 
Apparently the addition of another Afro-American definitely tipped the musical balance of the group towards the dance thing. Indeed, seeing the front (ala Sheer Heart Attack) and back cover photos, we get the full vision of black sense of street fashion with the pop-star twist, while the two white dudes appear only as “faire-valoir”. 
Well if you’re into this funk disco thing (or more into the disco-funk, in this case), MF might be just your thing, but if you enjoyed the hard-driving rock with a slight southern twist, you’d better stay clear of this dud, dude!

They pretty much dumped any rock influence on this one, sticking to funk and soul balladry. Obviously they do much better with the harder-edged funk stuff, with “Can’t Fight the Feeling” and “Don’t Want to Come Back” the clear highlights. 
While nothing with the assertive vocals of Baby Jean can be truly awful, the ballads are otherwise quite bland and try the listener’s patience. An obvious attempt at gunning for hit singles and airplay, it just came across as a second-rate Rufus clone and predictably tanked. Pretty much any of their other albums is a better choice. 

I’m not sure exactly when the band’s commercial fortunes took a nosedive, but I take it, that it’s around this album’s release or their next one, because they certainly lost a substantial amount of the rock-loving audience, while the increase of the soul-funk audience didn’t substantially increase to compensate. In either case, stand warned not to expect something close to their previous albums.


Side A
A1.  Can’t Fight The Feeling - 3:59
A2.  Tell Me - 3:14
A3.  Watch My Stylin’ - 3:56
A4.  Love Changes - 4:50

Side B
B1.  Don’t Wanna Come Back - 4:15
B2.  Give It Up - 4:49
B3.  Mr. Goodbar - 3:53
B4.  I Can’t Believe - 4:42
B5.  More And More - 3:00


Companies, etc.

Credits

Notes
Release:  1978
Format:  LP
Genre:  Funk rock
Label:  Epic Records
Catalog#  EPC 83011

Vinyl:  VG
Cover:  VG

Prijs: €4,99

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