The Originals: Down To Love Town - 1977

The Originals, as a male vocal Motown group, were never quite my thing, to be honest, despite their hit ballads, Baby I’m For Real and The Bells. The latter was a track loved by many, but I have always found it extremely boring, and the same applies to much of their lush, orchestrated balladry from the early seventies. 

Their stuff was quality, that was for sure, but they were not as uplifting and inspired as other soul groups, as far as I was concerned, just a bit too pedestrian. What they did do, though, was release a surprisingly good and extremely different album from their normal style in this brassy piece of polished disco soul from 1977. It is sort of O’Jays in style, with touches of Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes at their most disco-ey. 

The two standout tracks are the first two - Hurry Up And Wait and Down To Love Town, both of which cook up to boiling point in their horn-backed disco soul  grooves. The drums pound, the brass blares out and the vocals are suitable gruff in that Pendergrass-ish fashion. There is a catchy funkiness to them too. Both get into a disco vibe and are augmented by that typically-1977 wah-wah guitar sound. 

There is something of Earth, Wind & Fire about them as well, although the voices are deeper. Disco continues on the Tavares-esque You Are A Blessing To Me. Check out those sweeping disco strings and, once more, that 1977 guitar. The Village People-ish Call On Your Six-Million Dollar Man tapped into the contemporaneously popular TV Series starring Lee Majors as the bionic man. 

The music has got a bit samey by now, though, albeit a good samey, though, so Mother Nature’s Best shows that they could still do a ballad in the old style. It’s a good one too. Even better is the sumptuous Sunrise, which is a vast improvement on their earlier seventies work, for me. Been Decided is a fine funky disco workout to conclude this unexpected and comparatively unknown disco album. Seek it out - you will not be disappointed if you enjoy late seventies disco with added funky vibes.  

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