The Essential Sly & the Family Stone
SLY & THE FAMILY STONE
Epic/Legacy
It was a stunning sight, even for the late '60s: A truly integrated band — black, white, men, women — all big Afros and flowing, psychedelic getups. Sly & the Family Stone — formed in the cradle of hippiedom, San Francisco — were about gettin' the party started, about stirring folks to "Dance to the Music," not space out at the Acid Test.
Sony has finally gotten around to assembling a two-disc, remastered collection of 35 vital Sly songs, so we aficionados can now retire our muddy CD copies of the band's Greatest Hits.
The music has aged extremely well. A DJ in a hip-hop club could cut in "Sing a Simple Song" or "Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" and keep the dancefloor hummin'. Rock radio could certainly use a song like "I Want to Take You Higher."
The group's early singles — "Dance to the Music," "Fun," "Life" — espoused good times and unity in the tumultuous late '60s. Stand came along in '69, a certified masterpiece (seven selections are included here) that ranged from the celebratory "Simple Song" to the bitingly satirical mid-tempo funk of "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey" (with it's series of mind-bending solos on what sounds like a harmonica played through a wah-wah). "Hot Fun in the Summertime" and "Everybody is a Star" carried the band into the next decade.
Then the hard drugs really took hold. Nineteen seventy one heralded another recognized classic, There's a Riot Goin' On, which represented a radical transformation of the Sly sound from robust and gregarious to subtle and inward looking. Fittingly, disc two of the collection begins with "Family Affair." The song's charmingly offhand production, lazy groove, languid playing and Sly's frayed lead vocal made it an unlikely No. 1 hit.
In short order, Sly & the Family Stone metamorphosed from a band that had turned Woodstock upside down with a vivacious set to a group of musicians who seemingly preferred to get ripped and play for each other. This contrast of styles is summed up by a seven-minute remake of "Thank You" titled "Thank You For Takin' Me To Africa." The groove is slowed to a creep; Larry Graham's dubby bass riff takes center stage, decorated by muted guitar cascades. Sly sings the original lyrics as if in a stupor, punctuated by feeble screams.
(Sly diehards are generally divided over which stylistic period we prefer. For the record, I give a slight nod to the energetic Stand era.)
After Riot, S&TFS did a slow fade, although Essential includes some formidable songs like "In Time" and "If You Want Me to Stay," most in the same spare, stoned funk mode.
By the mid '70s, it was bye-bye Sly. Fans long wondered if he'd resurface. At some point we stopped. That makes The Essential Sly & the Family Stone all the more valuable. 
—Eric Snider
Get Rich or Die Tryin'
50 CENT
Shady/Aftermath
Thugged-out rappers are a penny a dozen these days. The only thing to separate Mace-soundalike 50 cent from the rest is production by Dr. Dre and Eminem as his benefactor. This is a little strange, because Dre has a history of developing MCs with a distinctive flow. The production — by Dre, Rockwilder and Eminem — is bangin'. Unfortunately the same can't be said for 50's delivery or lyrical content, which is neither engaging nor interesting. On two songs featuring Eminem, 50 is upstaged by his guest star. Ultimately, Get Rich is a production-driven album with a fill-in-the-blank rapper. It feeds the collective hunger for pop-laced danger and ready-made gangstas. 1/2—Drew Winchester
Like-Coping
JEFF PARKER
Delmark
After entrenching himself in Chicago's vibrant post-rock/quasi-jazz scene with collectives like Tortoise, Isotope 217 and the Chicago Underground Quartet, guitarist Jeff Parker delivers a long-overdue debut as a leader. Like-Coping exquisitely dances the line between post-bop and experimentalism. Joined by Chris Lopes on acoustic bass and drummer Chad Taylor, Parker has created an eminently listenable album that's challenging in subtle ways. It begins with Parker's choice of notes: Using a clean, effects-free tone akin to that of traditional jazz hollow-body players, he plays lines that deftly steer clear of cliches and stock licks. His meticulous single-note runs, splashed with chordal flourishes, find him constantly in an exploratory mode, looking for odd turns and cagey dissonances that add texture and sustain interest. The disc's overall mood tends to be low key, except for when the Parker trio dials up a couple of relatively brief free-rhythm skronk-fests. Jazz guitar records can be real snoozers; Like-Coping, while on the sedate side, hums with a quiet intensity that renders it a true find. www.delmark.com —Eric Snider
Fallen
EVANESCENCE
Wind-Up
By now you've all heard the single "Bring Me to Life" on modern-rock radio, so I'm not going to waste a lot of space. The only reason this reprehensible disc of generic ProTools DJ-metal even gets a score at all is vocalist Amy Lee. She's obviously a singer of spectacular talent, and the admittedly cliched, overdone Sarah McLachlan-esque ballad "My Immortal" shows she could more than stand on her own as a solo artist in another genre. Why she would want to front a Goth-y third-tier Linkin Park is utterly beyond rational thought. Oh, wait, it's coming to me — the money. It's awful. It's modern. Therefore, it's going to be huge. (1/2 Planet)—Scott Harrell
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2003.