Eddie Kendricks - Shoeshine Boy

(Tamla, 1975)

Kendricks is an ex-Temptations fella, and he’s doling out some sleek, breezy falsetto-funk here, making glossy genre-product intended for mature radio-ears in much the same way George Harrison did (within a pop/rock context) in the late ’70s. It’s fluff, DIG? The B-Side, “Hooked on Your Love,” is from his previous album and at least has a slightly more dramatic, Blaxploitation-esque feel to it thanks to some punchy string and bongo action, yet it still comes off as too slick and superficial to really take hold. Feel free to appreciate the arrangements and the overall, uh, professionalism of these songs, but you’d have to have a pair of mighty virginal ears to actually find yourself rocked and/or challenged by such stuff.

Not all is grumpiness in my world, however, as I received the following exciting items in the mail this very afternoon: Bobby Beausoleil Lucifer Rising Suite 4LP box; Dan Melchior Und Das Menace Obscured By Fuzz LP; Mayyors 12”; ridiculous Velvet Underground 7x7” reissue box on Sundazed; and, at long last, Forced Exposure issue 7/8. DANG. Sorry, Eddie Kendricks, but you and your scratched-to-all-heck 45 just can’t compete with a nerdy haul like that. SO GET OFF MY TURNTABLE!