Strategy

by Thom JurekOn their last album for Gamble & Huff's Philadelphia International label, the Drells went wholeheartedly into the disco fold by 1979. The tension that existed on their previous two records, which slipped back and forth across the disco/funk divide, is gone here. Elements of Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra and the Miami Sound Machine are deeply enmeshed in these tunes to the degree that the Drells' individual identity disappears. The instrumental and textural confusion that is "I Can't Get Enough of Your Love" (not Barry White's) is a case in point: a honky tonk/R&B piano sidles up next to a swelling string section, a thumping bassline that may or not be a synthed one, soul singing background vocalists, and swelling verses, punctuated by horns and layered with keyboards -- what a mess! The title track is a blatant White rip-off from any number of his hits at the time, with its shifting one-two bassline and gospelized call-and-response lines buried under stings and special effects of cosmic proportion. All of this is still forgivable, still listenable, maybe even pleasant, but it all goes out into the dumper with "Tighten up at the Disco." This blatant attempt at a cash-in not only doesn't work, but it unforgivably mars a record that may have been a bit of a disappointment in a bright and shining career, but was not an offensive one.