Search - Parliament :: Chocolate City

Fine remastering of a fantastic funky recording...

O. J. Dean | Texas, USA | 01/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I dont really feel like giving a detailed review, I just feel that this is a 5 star album and it deserves credit. I just played it again after a three year hiatus and I was blown away, just like the first time I heard it, over 20 years ago. Funk is not supposed to be perfect....its about what moves you or provokes you, it's as simple as that.

I'm not one to buy reissues, remasters, and such. I have found that sometimes a remaster can be worse than the original! This is one remaster you're going to want to get, though.

If you want great funk, this is it and you really can`t go wrong with this great disc."

Still getting warmed up

finulanu | Here, there, and everywhere | 11/17/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Like Up for the Down Stroke, Chocolate City is a perfectly adequate album that nonetheless fails to scale the heights that later Parliament discs would. It's a really rough album, featuring, for your entertainment, the worst song Parliament ever attempted: "I Misjudged You", a pained attempt at an orchestrated ballad. Ballads were never P-Funk's strong suit in the first place, but even by those standards it's a bad song. It honestly sounds like someone mashed up the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" (the lyrics), Pink Floyd's "Echoes" (the string arrangements sound a LOT like that classic riff), and some random doo-wap ballad from the '50s (Melody; vocals; the overabundance of strings), and decided to have the whole thing go on for five minutes. Not good. The keyboard-and-vocals "Let Me Be" isn't a heck of a lot better, either, but it is a slight improvement over "Misjudged". However, both are comperable to stinkers like Funkadelic's "Baby I Owe You Something Good" (funky power ballads should never exist).

Onto the rest! Basically, other than those two ballads this is divided into good funk and mediocre funk. On the good side you've got your black-power title track (though it's not racist - when people talk about the "God bless Chocolate City" refrain, they forget the "And its vanilla suburbs" part), with fascinatingly weird trumpet solos and a great interlocking keyboard/bass part. Great lyrics, too, packed with humorous off-the-cuff pop culture references. "Ride On" is even better, booty-shakin' funk-rock like Funkadelic's "Red Hot Mama". The lyrics need a bit of work, though. Compare "Don't worry 'bout bein' right, just be for real" to "You don't have to worry that it's wrong" from Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On" released two years previous. It probably isn't a direct rip-off, but it's not a very original chorus. Actually, it pretty much recasts "Let's Get it On" and any other funk baby-makin' song. But it's got a groove, and that's all that counts. The stomping, hilarious "Big Footin'" is one of Parliament's most udnerrated cuts. The last of the "great funk" songs is the Sly & the Family Stone-like "Together", with wonderful group vocals and an unbelievably catchy refrain. The remaining three songs ("If It Don't Fit (Don't Force It)"; "What Becomes Funky"; "Side Effects") aren't bad at all, but they're mediocre and essentially interchangeable. This was actually my first Parliament studio album (I bought it because I liked the group and it was cheap), and while I'm glad I own it, Mothership Connection and its ilk are much better."

Pretty Funky!

Sal Paradise | Washington, DC | 04/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album from funkified Parliament is pretty much a personal rendition albeit kinda old school of Washington, DC otherwise known as "chocolate city". I remember listening to this album well when I was a child and never really understood it enough to really groove to it but now I do as an almost thirty year-old. Tracks like the first one chocolate city, don't force it and common law wife are pretty much in the vein of previous Parliament songs. Any fan of Parliament is sure to get into this cd."