![]() Robert "Kool" Bell – bass (1–8), vocals (6, 7).A remake of "Summer Madness" was released on their 1993 album Unite titled "WKOOL/Summer". In 1991, the Hip-Hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince sampled elements of "Summer Madness" for their song " Summertime". It was later released as a single, with a follow-up titled "Winter Sadness" in Kool & the Gang's Spirit of the Boogie a year later. " Summer Madness" is considered to be the album's highlight, incorporating smooth melodies and a synthesizer. The album contains rock-inspired funk set to jazz-informed playing with afrobeat influences and a tinge of analogue synthesizing. ![]() While it was their seventh album of original material, the band considered Light of the Worlds their ninth LP ( counting two compilations), and therefore consciously chose nine songs for the album to represent the then nine planets in the Solar System. Light of Worlds is regarded as Kool & the Gang's most spiritual and sophisticated work, produced in the wake of the success of their previous album, Wild and Peaceful. It was a landmark in the funk/jazz fusion genre of the 1970s. Released in 1974, it was later remastered by Polygram and was a second success for the band, reaching number 16 in the R&B Charts and number 63 in the Pop Charts. With some of the production ideas already on show, there’s a lot of promise for the future.Light of Worlds is the fifth studio album, and seventh album of new material by the American R&B group Kool & the Gang. Joel Culpepper might be an artist that displays his inspirations a bit too transparently but this is often a typical trait of a debut album and artists tend to grow into their own on further releases. In addition, the Outkast reminiscent ‘ Dead Bodies’ borders on social commentary and features intriguing percussion, a voice-mail message and police siren sounds. The Tom Misch-produced ‘Poetic Justice’ features a conversation between Joel and a female friend that gives the album a a genuine south London atmosphere away from the American-heavy touches. ‘ Tears of a Crown’ has a marching brass lift with humble yet defiant lyrics, the most rewarding track ‘ Return’ features police surveillance speech within the Motown groove. Nonetheless, Sgt Culpepper has tracks with bold production choices and some good emotional lyrics. Some of the poorest attempts include: “on this funky ride, there’s a chance we could collide” on the 1990s R&B vibe ‘ Break’ and “a pink lunchbox, says he’s cold but never wears socks” on the otherwise respectable neo-soul track ‘Black Boy’. Furthermore he has voice that is distinctively high (a pitch that is over-used on some occurrences such as on ‘ Kisses’) that it would be interesting to see him perform. ![]() When taking away these tributes, what are we left with? Well Joel Culpepper is an artist with an abundance of impulsive energy that makes one think of him positively as a male version of Janelle Monae. On ‘Remember’, Joel sings: “song to the key of your life (acknowledging a Stevie Wonder album), on the brilliant standout track ‘ Thought About You,’ he honours Shuggie Otis – the style of bells used Otis’ ‘Strawberry Letter 23’ feature in Culpepper’s songs – and it’s hard to deny that the way the title is sung on ‘ W.A.R’ draws similarities to a certain track by Edwin Starr. ![]() There are signs that this isn’t coincidental though, as Joel actually references titles and musicians inside his songs. Yet the tracks themselves also borrow moments from particular songs without actually being samples: the trumpets from Michael Jackson’s ‘ Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough’ (‘ W.A.R’), the iconic high pitched moment in Kool & The Gang’s ‘Summertime Madness’ ( ‘Kisses’), Van McCoy’s ‘ The Hustle’ (‘ Return’) and the robotic vocoder of Daft Punk’ s Harder Better Faster Stronger ( ‘Remember’). Throughout Sgt Culpepper, Joel adopts the characteristics of other musicians the “huhs” of James Brown against a funkalicious backdrop and the falsetto style of Prince, as well as the British-accented talking of Ghostpoet and the hazy vocals of Andre 3000. However, considering that the title of the record is seemingly a nod to a certain Beatles classic ( Sgt Culpepper = Sgt Pepper), perhaps the obvious imitations of classics are deliberate after all. In the case of south Londoner Joel Culpepper’s debut album, his muses seem to be too apparent, that the tracks often border on pastiche. It’s natural for an artist to be influenced by musicians of yesteryear and to mix the sounds of their heroes with their own original take.
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