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Cosmic Slop

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Funkadelic

 
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Cosmic Slop

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Avg: 4.0 (89 ratings)

Funkadelic's final bona fide masterpiece

  • We Say...

    George Clinton, ringleader of the Parliamentfunkadelicment Thang, is one of the prime movers of 20th-century postwar music — but he's sometimes dismissed as a tricked-out R&B buffoon. This can partly be ascribed to the fabled album covers by Pedro "Sir Lleb" Bell, whose wonderfully scatological, Afro-metafizzik art debuted on 1973’s Cosmic Slop. But beneath the cartoons, Cosmic Slop is the final bona fide masterpiece of Clinton's head band, Funkadelic — an acid-fried, fuzzed-out cycle which began with their eponymous 1970 debut. Guitar god Eddie Hazel had exited, but be-diapered 21-year old guitarist Garry Shider turned "Cosmic Slop," an ode to a mother ho'ing to feed her babies, into the album's centerpiece and an enduring P-Funk classic. Above all, keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell stepped up as MVP. (See "Nappy Dugout.") Other essentials include "March to the Witch's Castle," an early account of Vietnam vets' readjustment nightmares, and "No Compute," a hilarious reminder that Funkadelic was one of the era's greatest unsung rockabilly groups.

  • They Say...

    With a much more stripped-down version of the band, if the credits are to be believed (five regular members total, not counting any vocalists), Funkadelic continued its way through life with Cosmic Slop. A slightly more scattershot album than the group's other early efforts, with generally short tracks (only two break the five-minute barrier) and some go-nowhere ballads, Cosmic Slop still has plenty to like about it, not least because of the monstrous title track. A bitter, heartbreaking portrait of a family on the edge, made all the more haunting and sad by the sweet vocal work -- imagine an even more mournful "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone" -- the chorus is a killer, with the devil invited to the dance while the band collectively fires up the funk. Elsewhere, the band sounds like it's more interested in simply hitting a good groove and enjoying it, and why not? If introductory track "Nappy Dugout" relies more on duck calls and whistles than anything else to give it identity, it's still a clap-your-hands/stomp-your-feet experience, speeding up just a little toward the end. As for the bandmembers themselves, Bernie Worrell still takes the general lead thanks to his peerless keyboard work, but the guitar team of Gary Shider and Ron Bykowski and the rhythm duo of Tyrone Lampkin and Cordell Mosson aren't any slouches, either. George Clinton again seems to rely on the role of ringleader more than anything else, but likely that's him behind touches like distorted vocals. Certainly it's a trip to hear the deep, spaced-out spoken word tale on "March to the Witch's Castle," a harrowing picture of vets returning from Vietnam -- and then realizing that Rush ripped off that approach for a song on its Caress of Steel album a year or two later! [The 2005 reissue features excellent remastered sound, a thick booklet, and the single edit of the title track.]

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