The Isley Brothers: A Funky Family

It was the summer of '79, and Tucson’s disco radio station, 13-KHYT, just couldn’t play the Isley Brothers often enough. It seemed every time I tuned in, there was the churning funk of “I Wanna Be With You,” with its vocoder hook repeating the title over and over, alternating with a semi-whisper of the Isleys chanting “You and me, babe, gettin’ it on, you and me.” Even though I loved disco, I grew to hate the tune, and generally avoided the Isley Brothers’ music whenever I could.

Pharrell's GIRL: A Recap of 2013

Pharrell's new album, GIRL, is nothing but a highly polished recap of the great year he had in 2013. And why not? The longtime musician and producer (of acts like the Neptunes and N.E.R.D.) was constantly in the spotlight with a string of smash hits and television appearances. Pharrell spent the better part of the year dominating the radio waves with the two biggest songs of the summer, Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" and Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines." He continued his airwave domination the fall with his contribution to Despicable Me 2, the top-tapping hit, "Happy." This sugary sleeper hit is on constant radio rotation to this day. After listening to GIRL twice through, my simple review of the album: if you loved (or can still tolerate) the above songs, GIRL deserves your weekly Freegal downloads and a spot on your playlist. But if the thought of blurred lines and lucky robots makes you nauseous, stay far, far away from this one. Read below for some critiques of the individual tracks!

PCPL has got the "P"!

P. Funk, that is.

If you ever wondered just what P. Funk is all about, you can find out here at the library. Not only do we own a copy of Parliament's signiture album, Mothership Connection, but we also have two CD collections of P. Funk rarities to boot. If that ain't enough, Freegal has what is far and away my own personal favorite album of P. Funk available as well, Urban Dancefloor Guerillas by the P. Funk All-Stars. So get out your library card, and get ready to "blow the cobwebs out yo' mind."

Daft Punk - Get Lucky!

Daft Punk is one of those musical groups that everyone loves. And for good reason: who can resist two dance-crazed robots who fill our lives with glorious electro-disco-synthpop? As the two members of Daft Punk (French producers Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter) tell it, "We did not choose to become robots. There was an accident in our studio...when we regained consciosness, we discovered that we had become robots." And luckily for us, these robots did not want to enslave the human race in a cycle of pain and misery (I'm looking at you, Skynet)...instead, they only want us to dance. With a dash of disco, a scattering of funk, a pinch of groove, and a whole lot of electro love, Daft Punk have created over sixteen years of dance hits for the world to enjoy.

And after much too long, they are back.