ALBUM REVIEW: Curtis Mayfield - Roots

    Curtis Mayfield rose to prominence as a member of The Impressions throughout the 60s before eventually splitting with them in 1970 to pursue a solo career. The result was the founding of his own Curtom Records and the supremely smooth funk-tinged debut album. While it wasn't a perfect album by any means, Curtis Mayfield's debut album was an excellent case-study in the glossy Chicago Soul sound, which was an idea that he would further expand on with this sophomore release. Roots is an ideal follow-up to Mayfield's soaring debut album, and one that takes on deeper influences from funk than his debut album. The result yields moments that are just as sharp and funky as his debut, if not more so. While the album is dragged down by some slower or less enticing moments, Roots is still a very good album that perfectly delivers on the expectations that Curtis Mayfield has laid out.

    In comparison to the more soul-based sound of his debut, Roots generally takes far more influence from the world of funk on a good amount of the track, and these moments result in the album's strongest moments. One may be quick to accuse "Get Down" or "Beautiful Brother of Mine" of being repetitious of his previous album, especially compared to moments like "Move on Up" or "If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go," but Mayfield is far more original than that - side B opener of "Beautiful Brother of Mine" is one of Mayfield's strongest moments yet with rich backing vocals, Mayfield's sensible and rich guitar playing, and Joseph "Lucky" Scott on a fuzzy, crunchy bass that truly does make the song - MVP of the album in many ways is this bass playing. So damn good. Mayfield's infusion of funk deeper into his soul DNA regularly gives us the album's best moments, be it the aforementioned tracks or other cuts like the low-down "Underground" on the first half.

    That isn't to say that the influence of soul has been completely kicked, as there are still some great cuts that lean heavily on Curtis' vision of Chicago soul, the strongest of which being the extensive and rich "Now You're Gone" on the second half of the album - in many ways, the song plays like perfect fusion of the sound and ideas of soul and funk, and the result is one of the album's strongest moments. Other moments like the smooth-as-butter "Keep On Keeping On" keep the momentum up and pushing on. For what it's worth, though, I find the more pure soul-leaning moments to generally show the album's weaker aspects. Closing track "Love to Keep You in My Mind" as well as side closer "We Got to Have Peace" are the two examples that immediately come to mind with this, and while they are fine soul songs and the latter seems to be especially popular, they ultimately did very little in terms of the album when taking in everything else presented, even though I can acknowledge that the musicianship is still spot-on.

    While I think I prefer Curtis to Roots by just that little bit, Roots is still a great album from one of soul and funk's finest musicians. Mayfield's chops are continuously shown throughout, be it his excellent vocals, his strong songwriting, or his guitar playing on funkier tracks. The music is tight, energetic, and often gives us some of Mayfield's most memorable moments from start to finish. While Roots isn't preferable to his debut for me, I can more than see how it would be to many - after all, it's just about everything you could want out of a Mayfield album.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Roots.