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10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
WHAT A SUPRISE! THE GREAT UNKNOWN SLY ALBUM.Nov 11, 2000
By Steven D. Litos
When I first picked up this CD, I did it only to complete the collection. I was amazed at how great this album is. "Underdog" leads off the set with a bang, and in my opinion Greg Errico's best drumming performance. "Let Me Hear It From You" & "What Would I Do" are lost soul classics. The album's mixing, production, and over all sound are better than any other of Sly's 1960's albums. It's a must listen for headphones. The sound quality is so superb that you will be reaching for the CD case again and again to look for the sound engineer's name. FYI - I read somewhere that the album was done on a 4-Track machine.
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
Sly's best, & a great lost albumJun 20, 2002
By Bruce Merrill
Actually, this is Sly's best album, an unrecognized wonder, a great lost album, really. As he went downhill (from drugs), his music became simpler, here it begins at its most clever and ambitious. What sets it apart from his subsequent output is how eclectic and highly arranged his songs are. It's the late sixties; Sly is opening up his kind of R&B-- just as the British Invasion opened up the rock/pop song in general. He was a music major in college, so his beginning the disc with a minor key "Frere Jacques" was a conscious borrowing from Mahler.... Listen to how tight and varied and "Advice" and "Dog" are-- as Sly keeps the beat, but puts the tune through one change after another. Wonderful use of the different voices, distinct and blended. Two excellent touching slow ballads: "Let me Hear it from you" (sung by Larry Graham), and "That kind of person" (by Sly's brother, Freddie). Dig the insanely frantic "Turn Me Loose"-- which they used to attach to their equally frantic version of Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose." Great drumming! Great sound; beautifully produced, by Sly. But so many of these potent songs fall apart at the end... Sly didn't have the sense of an ending. And then-- is there a connection?-- he fell apart in the end, and became a druggy shadow of the talented wizard that he once was.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Let's Hear It For Sly First Time Around!!!!Apr 18, 2007
By Andre S. Grindle
"Andre' Grindle"
Presenting Sly & The Family Stone,brand new band reaching out to the summer of love!And 'A Whole New Thing' a great contribution.What Sly presents on this album is not exactly funk but a supercharged variety of soul,embellished with 60's rock touches.This style is known as psychedelic soul and this is a very early example.As far as the songs are concerned "Underdog",the first song and "Dog",the last song are among the strongest examples,and the catchiest.Strange enough this is the only Sly album that really has any distinct ballads,notably the gospelish "That Kind Of Person".Now this album has some pretty obvious points against it,but only when compared to the brilliant Dance to the Music,Life and Stand!.That point is that,especially in case of the brilliant "Advice" and "I Hate To Love Her" is that each of these songs tends be be bogged down in mountains of musical ambition;within less then three minutes sometimes there is more information packed into them then most full albums have.So this never had an enormous breakout single but Larry Graham's solo vocal on another ballad gospel type tune "Let Me Hear It From You" does leap out as an obvious single.Strangly enough "Only One Way Out Of This Mess" and "What Would I Do",two bonus tracks have incredible hooks and are the strongest "hit" type songs you'll hear on this album.Another bonus track "You Better Help Yourself" opens the door to the genre of proto funk;a groovier variety of soul based in rhythm.So while nothing on 'A Whole New Thing' truely leaps out as a hit record it does live up to it's name by presenting a unique sound and a legendary band.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
So nostalgic it hurts!Aug 02, 1999
By Mark Grindell
"Mark Grindell"
I heard this fine selection when I was a student in Hertfordshire. I was born in 1960, and for the life of me I can't imagine how I heard any of this material. I must have only been in primary school. And yet this stuff immediately stirred and moved me. It has so much soul, this stuff is irresistable. If you weren't there, it will make you feel like a fully paid up member of the sixties, like you were really one of the dudes... It has so much to offer ("Underdog" really jumps) and the inventiveness of the horn parts... Well, you would get a good deal from this in so many ways, but more than anything, the yearning and longing for the years past when this stuff was being made. What soul... Where are you now, Sly old friend?
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
A crimminaly ignored debutAug 06, 2007
By Nicholas E. Rowley
This album is spectacular. While it's obvious that it is Sly and the Family Stone there is a different vibe due to the changes that would be made for Dance to the Music. Underdog is a standout track but every fan of Sly should check out this album to see what he was originally thinking when he put the band together.
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