The Meters: New Directions - 1977

 

After nearly nine years of releasing quality funk and soul albums, this was, unfortunately, the last outing for this excellent New Orleans band. They had given consistent pleasure from the late sixties through to the mid seventies in their eight high quality albums. 

No More Okey Doke is a pounding, upbeat brassy funk grinder, with horns to the fore and a it sees a return to their finest funky feel. The organ, bass, drum interplay at the end is impressive, as is the gritty soulful vocal. I'm Gone is a lively piece of poppy soul-blues, with once again features some kicking horn parts. 

Be My Lady is a sumptuous smoochy soul number, with great bass and horns, as is now expected. For this final album, The Meters have merged their natural funk with soul a lot more obviously than on previous albums. The track maybe doesn't justify six and a half minutes, but it doesn't grate in any way. My Name Up In Lights is a delicious slice of insistent, grinding funk. It is very typical of mid-late seventies soul/funk. 

Funkify Your Life is, as the title would suggest, a superbly funky workout, with hints of Parliament-Funkadelic. Stop That Train is The Meters first venture into reggae, and they do it pretty convincingly with their cover of Peter Tosh's classic. It fitted in to the crossover into reggae that became fashionable in 1977 with the punk/reggae thing. 

We Got The Kind Of A Love is back to sumptuous soul with a Harold Melvin meets Third World ballad. The backing vocals are very Third World. Give It What You Can is a gritty, industrial piece of thumping horn-powered funk rock, with a socially-conscious message and some great vocals. This is not a bad album to bow out with. A nice mix of funk, soul and reggae. It was a shame The Meters decided to call it a day after this, particularly as the album was titled New Directions, but there you go. 

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