PARLIMENT
Up For The Downstroke (Mercury)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Parliment's sophomore album came four years after the debut, and things were much, much different. The grooves on the first few tunes, the title track and "Testify," were far funkier than what had come before, thanks largely to the addition of former James Brown bassist Bootsy Collins, a showman who was born for this role. George Clinton's fascination with spacey sounds was in germination on "I Can Move You (If You Let Me)," which is fun if you're in the right mood. After that, you'd have to be a fan of soul ballads to get much out of this particular album, as that's what you get the rest of the way, save for a traditional electric blues number called "Whatever Makes Baby Feel Good." As this is a re-mastered CD, the sound is cleaned up at least somewhat (either I'm aging and can't tell anymore or this one just doesn't sound that much better than the original) and it has bonus tracks. There are alternate mixes of "Up For The Down Stroke" and "Testify," both quite good, and a previously unreleased track called "Singing Another Song" that is clearly a backing track without the lead vocals. Do you have fantasies about fronting P-Funk? Make up your own lyrics, grab a microphone and crank it up, it's Parlioke night! Should you spend your hard earned cash on this one? Not if you can only afford one. Get Mothership Connection. If you want to get comprehensive about it and you don't mind mellow funk, by all means, it's worth owning.

© 2003 - DJ Johnson