Track Listing

1. Introduction
2. Got A Thing On My Mind
3. What Have You Done For Me Lately
4. Dap Dip
5. Give Me A Chance
6. Got To Be The Way It Is
7. Make It Good To Me
8. Ain't It Hard
9. Pick It Up Lay It In The Cut
10. Casella Walk

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19152 in Music
• Released on: 2002-05-13
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

The Greatest Form of Flattery
These guys need some RESPECT! These guys are living THE FUNK! I want to marry SHARON JONES!

I want to be very clear how good an album this is but the kind of words needed to do so would simply be censored out. Instead I'd have to say this is sensational, truly authentic, hard hitting, old skool, slamming funk - and it's being made today!

It is quite shocking how authentically early 70s this band sounds. You can play this right next an old 45 from The Meters, Marva Whitney, James Brown or Marlena Shaw and it's on the button - the same style, heavy on the bass and drums as though they are falling out of your speakers, same loud, proud and powerful female vocal and by God it's infectious!

And to further this sound the cover art is all completely lifted from the late 60s and early 70s. Inside you see the band in sepia photographs as if they just stepped off the stage playing for Duke Ellington or even the JBs. They're suited like true jazz cats with instruments in hand. Facing this is a diagram of how to dance the "The Dap Dip". Such is the humour and passion for authenticity.

'I Got A Thing On My Mind' epitomises the style of funk described above to a tea. Heavy duty, hot steppin bassline, a drummer kicking and screaming for dear life and well before Sharon's vocals hit you know this is an instant dancefloor scorcher. I would play this at the top of one of my hardest most frantic funk sets in any club and it will raise the temperature a further 10 degrees C hands down. And it's relevant content too, up to date to right now. "Life ain't easy, God knows I've tried, I got what I got cos other folks have died, I got a thing on my mind" Iraq or Vietnam War, world poverty, however you choose to read the lyrics it's on the mark.

"The Dap Dip" is further demonstration of how fully these guys live the funk. With an old style annoucer as would have been heard at the Apollo in Harlem we are boldly told that there's a new dance craze hitting the streets "and it's called the Dap Dip". Here the horns show themselves to be equal to the legacy of Fred Wesley & The JBs when it comes to a brass section laying down tight funk. This swings, sloops and slides and you find yourself reaching for that diagram of the dancesteps.

"Give Me A Chance" is covered with equal authenticity, sounding pretty similar to Lee Fields' version but for Sharon's vocal variations. "Pick It Up and Lay It In The Cut" is another of those classic funk tracks in which the vocal and lyrics are there purely to add extra rythmn to play with rather than make any kind of commentary, think the JBs "Givin' Up Food For Funk" for example.

You could say that there is a lack of stylistic variety on here but when you can listen to "I Got a Thing on My Mind" 10 times back to back and still feel like shaking your limbs some more who the hell needs variety?

All in all - this is, as has been stated already, a MONSTER FUNK ALBUM. This is reminding us of the hayday of the funk greats and it can't be overstated how well Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings handle this huge legacy. More power to these red hot funksters!

The best new funk album of the 21st century
I couldn't agree more with the above review, this album sounds as if it was recorded in 1969 to the original funk recipe of James Brown. It unlearns everything we have musically taken too far - i.e. overproduction of albums resulting in a clinical sounds; plus the use of electronic instruments and digital recording. Instead they stick to instruments of the day and record on analogue equipment. Sharon Jones' vocal style is also a very welcome return to the belting funk style of Lyn Collins and Marva Whitney - all natural soul with none of the oversinging popular with todays singers. This is the best funk album of the 21st century (so far) - if funk or soul is your thing, you owe it to yourself to own a copy of this!

Are y'all ready to get down?
That's the question Ms Jones asks of the listener at the start of this album, and if you weren't before you put it on you'll be Dap Dippin with the best of them by the record's end.
This is an absolute monster of a funk record, and in my humble opinion stands up well against some of the classic albums of the late 60's & early 70's. Such are the quality of the songs that its hard to pick a stand out track, though the cover of Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" wipes the floor with the original.
The Dap Kings are musically as funk & tight as anything you're ever likely to hear, whilst Sharon Jones herself has a voice as good (if not better) than any of the funk-soul divas of the past - equally at ease on the scorching "Got A Thing on My Mind" or the mellow and soulful "Make It Good To Me"
I bought this record over a year ago, and its one of thos rare pieces of music that sounds as fresh now, as it did the first time it was played.
If you claim to like music but don't like this, then I'm afraid you don't like music