Brown's
Polydor debut,
Hot Pants, was nothing more than an inferior remake of the title track baited with a batch of half-baked vamps.
There It Is, his second
Polydor studio album, was a marked improvement. Not that he put much into it, either. This 1972 effort collected five of his best early-'70s tracks and mixed in minimal filler.
"Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing" and
"There It Is (Pts. 1 & 2)," with its bebop-style horns, were both innovative and hard driving to a fault. The hilarious
"I'm a Greedy Man," with its hypnotic bass and help from
Bobby Byrd, has
Brown firing off such witticisms as "I'm a greedy man/yes I are" and "Taking care of my business/now run tell that."
Brown wasn't all fun and games on this one.
"King Heroin," an eerie, laid-back jazz offering, has him reciting chilling poetry about the ills of the drug.
"Public Enemy #1 (Pt. 1)" attempts to re-create the same message. By
"Public Enemy #2 (Pt. 2)" he is doing nothing but connecting the same dots and screaming himself hoarse to little effect. Although by this point
Brown was best known for his dance tracks, he still had a way with a ballad.
"Who Am I," a song that had been kicking around his oeuvre for aeons, gets a strong arrangement and has
Brown giving an impassioned performance. It's well worth picking up. ~ Jason Elias