 Ohio Players Probably the best individual Ohio Players album, Fire is a party unto itself, packed with great dance songs as well as slow jams for hittin' the skins wit'cho honeys. The cover isn't one of their best ("best" meaning most gratuitously sexist), but it's right in line with what you expect from the OP catalog: a nude woman wearing a fire helmet, with a clear plastic fire hose coiled around her body as smoke swirls around her legs. You can actually see the smoke machine in the picture, too, which only makes it more enjoyable. The music is similarly good/bad, but the more you turn off your brain, the more you'll get out of it. "Fire" and "Smoke" are two great OP funk workouts, while "Together" and "I Want to Be Free" are a pair of great ballads. "Runnin' From the Devil" is one of their lesser known funk cuts, but it's very memorable and good. The album alternates between funk and slow jam, almost song by song, giving the texture a nice variety so it doesn't end up sounding all samey. "It's All Over" is a great ol' school breakup song, complete with spoken intro "Aw, gal, put that suitcase down, you ain't kiddin' nobody—you cain't leave me woman, you love me!" As with most Ohio Players tracks, in fact, as with my entire fascination with the Ohio Players, there's an element of dopiness to it all, but at the same time it's genuinely good. I think it's funny, but I simultaneously think it's ass-kickin'. I'm not sure how that works, but I like it. "What the Hell" is another good funk tune, and the album closes with "Together/Feelings," a minute-long slow jam that sings you to sleep with sweet pillow talk. The whole album is like a night spent at a very sexy party, and you definitely get some. Points added for the crazy space-pirate uniforms the players wear in the interior photos, the collective 6000 Newtons of Afro (aren't Afros measured in terms of force? They should be), and the credits naming the players only by first name and astrological sign. This is a great funk record, not one-dimensional at all, and one of the rare 70s funk albums where every song is really good. I can't say it's a masterpiece, though, because it doesn't have a clear-hinge jewel case.
Review by Saul Chan |