Labelle: Nightbirds - 1974
Thought to be Labelle's best album by many critics, this is more new Orleans brassy soul than disco, but many consider it a disco album, largely because of the punchy floor-filler Lady Marmalade (which strangely did not become a single hit until the summer of 1976).
Backed by various members of New Orleans funkers The Meters and produced by legendary funkman Allen Toussaint, the album is a muscular, in-your-face offering. Other highlights are the grinding funk of Are You Lonely?, Somebody Somewhere, the also gloriously funky Don't Bring Me Down and What Can I Do For You? I really like the quirky, electronic-ish Space Children too. All Girl Band has the girls telling us how they cope against their adversities and come out stronger. Girl power here - twenty and more years earlier.
It is the brassy soul stompers which take one's attention, but the ballads like It Took A Long Time, the Gladys Knight-esque You Turn Me On and Nightbird are top quality too. With backing like The Meters provided and the excellent female vocals, that was not surprising.
As I said, though, it is far more of a soul album than a disco one. Lady Marmalade is so damn good and now so well-known that it cannot fail to dominate, however. Incidentally, one of the group's singers Nona Hendryx wrote five of the songs, unusual for soul vocalists - they often just did the singing. Another piece of trivia was that Shakatak named their eighties album Nightbirds, oddly, as they must surely, as soul funkers, have been aware of this one's existence.
