Strut: In The Christmas Groove

Strut: In the Christmas Groove
Reviewed by Sadie O., 1/24/10
Delicious collection of obscure funk and soul Christmas songs from the late 60’s and 70’s. OK, it’s probably more fun when it’s actually Christmas, but funk and soul from the golden age is always on time, dammit! That said, they’re scraping the bottle of the gin and juice barrel by the end of the platter…
1. 2:34 ****midtempo funk bounce with harmonica, gnarly blues vocals. Great fun.
2. 3:08 ***jingle bells and bit of pah rum pump um, then classic 70’s funk – goofy, but super funky, so what the heck!
3. 3:21 ***jingle bells and more jingle bells, then huge soul horn section and way uptempo funk groove. Ain’t nothing but a party! I think the incredibly spastic guitar solo adds another dimension…
4. 3:34 *****more jingle bells! Lots and lots of jingle bells… Then downtempo superfunky drum strut and wah wah guitar. Produced by Nawlins legend Eddie Bo, and it shows. Glockenspiel!
5. 2:34 *relaxed swingy sway, children’s chorus sing a sad song of Christmas in the Ghetto. Tugs forcefully at the heartstrings.
6. 2:48 downbeat soul with full orchestra, big harmonies, high female voices, overproduced… Incredibly bad. So bad, you’ll play it a million times.
7. 2:32 ***yay! Back to funk. Downbeat but with a lot of growl in the instrumentation. Gospel vocals with some unlikely elements in the music.
8. 2:35 **midtempo funk, high vocal harmonies – a bit commercial, but with a funky strut.
9. 2:52 ***slow, totally offkey, has a definite pathetic aspect to it, in the sort of heavily stoned Caribbean way we’ve come to love. Merry Christmas! Who died?
10. 3:14 *is this Barry White? He and his chorus and band are really hoping it is.
11. 4:25 ****jingle bells, midtempo offkilter funk, and your friendly neighborhood James Brown impersonator and spoken storytelling. I ain’t knockin it – what’s not to love? In fact, this is NUTS!
12. 4:02 **terrible keyboard intro… And it gets worse! Endearingly spirited, however. When they say “Happy New Year” they are NOT kidding around.