Search - Lee Fields :: Let's Get a Groove on

Don't trust no government / that don't say where your dollar

Mr. A. Pomeroy | Wiltshire, England | 04/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is fascinating stuff. It's a modern-day funk record, from the mid-1990s, but it's done in the old James Brown style, with old-fashioned instruments and real drums etc played by human beings. It's generally less frantic than James Brown but the spirit is there. It would be easy to describe Lee Fields as a copy of James Brown, but he's so spot-on that he must surely be heartfelt.



The mixing is surprisingly bass-less on a couple of songs, but it's good stuff and infectious fun. "Watch the Man" is the stand-out track for me - it's a homage to 60s-style black consciousness records, but the lyrics are still totally contemporary, and pan-racial - and I also like the organ-led instrumental "All by Myself". "I'm a Millionaire" is the only Live At The Apollo-style crashing ballad, and it has a monster groove. The general lyrical emphasis on being responsible and getting on in the real world is refreshingly unlike a lot of modern music.



The intro and "Bad Bad Bad" are basically the same piece of music, a short loop that goes on too long in the latter case. Like a lot of the records on Desco it flirts with spoof; Lee Fields is the real deal, a genuine albeit minor 1970s funk superstar, but the album is put together as if it had come out in the 1970s, with vinyl pops and odd fade-ins etc. Very good."