 KC & the Sunshine Band Despite the retro-disco craze of 1997, which is still lingering, I will attempt to be objective to one of the icons of the era. The Best of KC & The Sunshine Band is a sonically pleasing example of a band who struggled to avoid wearing its influences on its sleeve ("Sound Your Funky Horn"), and hit a stride of Top 10 hits (tracks 2-9). Of course, they lost their magic touch at times along the way (tracks 10-16, with the exception of "Give It Up"). The best way to listen to this CD is to make a cdr featuring your favorite 10 tracks, and then go trade this disc in for beer and/or laundry money. Perhaps the best way to look at KC & the Sunshine Band in context, is to consider them the INXS of disco … heavy on catchiness, light on substance. I would be remiss, however, if I didn't acknowledge the guilty-pleasured basketball game rally tunes like "That's The Way (I Like It)" or "Get Down Tonight," which played out of my giant portable Panasonic cassette player over and over again as a youth. Ironically, that tape disappeared … guess dad got sick of it before I did, as he did with my mom and my childhood. I could listen to "Boogie Shoes" for hours, and have, and "Give It Up" remains splendid after all these years. What's most interesting, perhaps, is if you buried this CD in a time capsule and came back and listened to it in about 10-15 years, it would probably still rock your ass off. Oh, excuse me, I meant "shake your booty off."
Review by Casey Blick |