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
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
firing off such witticisms as "I'm a greedy man/yes I are" and "Taking care of my business/now run tell that."
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
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
giving an impassioned performance. It's well worth picking up. ~ Jason Elias