Disco de Commodores: “Natural High/Midnight Magic”

Folks, don't get this two-fer! Several of the songs are 'singles', not the 12-inch versions. Motown, in their infinite wisdom, apparently decided to squeeze as much as they could with this 2 on 1 CD. So, in order to accomplish that goal, they used the 'single' versus the 'album' version of songs (e.g., "Flying High"). I bought the albums Natural High and Midnight Magic as a teen. The albums are great!! This Disc, especially given today's technology - is an unfortunate throwback to when they could get a maximum of 74 minutes onto a compact disc (anybody remember that infamous Prince disc where they had to leave off "DMSR"? This is the same case!).

Keep your money in your pocket! Five stars for the Commodores and their music on both albums - but three stars for the 'chopped up' disc!

Collectors item or not this 1986 CD contains the final two Commodores album released in the 70's. Between the their beginnings mid decade to these two albums released in 1978/79 a lot had changed for the band,both internally and externally. While at first showcasing a collective musical and songwriting style built around hard southern soul,R&B and funk The Commodores had slowly into a band who were becomming more commercially successful with the heavily crafted ballads Lionel Richie was beginning to contribute to their sound. Both of these albums have very special charms but each is very different so I will treat them as such. 1978's 'Natural High' is the follow up to their highly successful 1977 release

which balanced the bands now twin identities very well and really broke them through big time to the pop world. The follow up was obviously effected by that by presenting uptempo funk-pop such as "Fire Girl","Flying High" and to a somewhat lesser degree "I Like What You Do" are the beginning to The Commodores outside the context of a straight up groove to something closer to a sophistifunk sound in the slickly produced Con Funk Shun/EWF style. In terms of the straight up variety of funk there are two songs here still in that chunky bass/guitar vein such as "X-Rated Movie" and "Say Yeah". Of course the song most people went into this album for was the ballad "Three Times A Lady" and for more on that "Such A Woman" and "Visions" have a similarly soulful midtempo ballad flavor as "Easy" from the previous release. Overall it's a fairly strong album but has some elements of musical uncertainty so there's an uneveness regarding which tracks are more powerful than others. The second record on this set is a different matter.'Midnight Magic',recorded at the peak of the disco era surprises with not only the energized and invigorated nature of all the songs but a very high level of songcraft throughout. The uptempo funk numbers such as the percussive "Gettin' It",the rapid fire disco/funk-bass driven workout of the title song as well as both stuttering,break driven "Your Special" and the tough rocking "Sexy Lady" improve 100% on the very good but mildly flat uptempo numbers from the previous collection. Of course two of Lionel's best known ballads with the band,including "Still" are here and over the years I've really warmed to the midtempo country-funk slow jam of "Sail On". Same goes for the underrated,dreamy midtempo groove "Wonderland",in which Walter Orange takes the "best of both worlds" rhythms of "Just To Be Close To You" to the next level with both a lulling sound and aggressive instrumental turns especially in his keyboard playing. Even though both of these albums are not precisely the same and some songs are more powerful than others it's wonderful to hear this interesting point in The Commodores musical progression as these two albums flow back to back on this rare and rewarding set.