The Jackson 5: Get It Together - 1973

  

Released only six months after Skywriter, this album showed a real diversification in The Jackson 5's music. Disco was not yet here as a definite genre, but the basic sounds and the rhythms were arriving in the chart music of The O'Jays, KC & The Sunshine Band and Hot Chocolate to name just a few. The Jackson 5 also started going down that road on this short, eight track album. The tracks all flow into reach other and there is a definite Norman Whitfield-Temptations-Undisputed Truth feel to the whole thing.

Get It Together is a short, but catchy, brassy, clavinet-driven piece of proto-disco funk. while Don't Say Goodbye Again is an orchestrated ballad that has a subtle rhythm running underneath it. Michael's voice is now much deeper, although he can still reach some high notes. It is a young man's voice now, not a boy's. Reflections is a cover of the Diana Ross & The Supremes classic, given a bit of a spacey, funky mid-seventies makeover. 

Hum Along And Dance was a big, extended (nearly nine minutes), Undisputed Truth style cover of a Temptations song. It was The Jacksons' most mature, innovative and experimental track to date. The assorted vocals, led by Jackie and Tito for once, all mesh convincingly and the track is packed with an earthy, funky ambience. 

Mama I Gotta Brand New Thing (Don't Say No) was also a lengthy number and was originally recorded by The Undisputed Truth. The Jacksons do it in  similarly soulful, gospelly fashion. Although this wasn't an original song for the group, it was certainly a different style of material they were doing now. No bubblegum pop any more, although that had been the case for a few years. 

It's Too Late To Change The Time is an infectious piece of soul with vague reggae influences in its beat. If you listen carefully, Michael uses the vocal hiccup thing here for the first time on the chorus. You Need Love Like I Do (Don't You) was previously recorded by Gladys Knight & The Pips and The Temptations. The Jacksons don't particularly offer anything new to the song. It is what it is - a good one. Dancing Machine is where they start to get really "early disco" on a highly danceable groove, one which would appear on, and be the title of, their next album. Things were changing. 

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