Three albums after the departure of
Smokey Robinson
,
the Miracles
were performing respectably, chalking up a sizable hit in 1974 with the sexually charged
"Do It Baby,"
but they had no real blockbusters to their name until the sequined, spangled 1975 concept album
City of Angels
. As its title makes plain, this is a record about Los Angeles in the mid-'70s, a place where everybody is on the prowl and there ain't nobody straight. Such gay-friendly sentiments were groundbreaking for 1975 but they weren't exactly uncommon in the days of disco, an era this album evokes effortlessly with its pounding four-four beats and swishing sheets of polyester strings. A large part of the appeal of
is as a period piece, how the album vacillates between the syrupy satin of the title track and the TV-theme disco of
"My Name Is Michael,"
peaking with the go-go good times of
"Love Machine,"
the single that gave
their biggest hit in the post-
Smokey
era. Like
"Love Machine"
is a quintessential slice of '70s glitz, and if the rest of the album lacks a single song as galvanizing as that anthem, it captures its time and place in a way few records ever do. [
Hip-O Select
's 2010 reissue contains an instrumental version of
as a bonus track.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine