Consumer Guide Album

James Brown: Soul Syndrome [Rhino, 1991]
With his '70s output reconfigured by Polydor, this rarely seen 1980 T.K. LP-plus-12-inch becomes a valuable document: solid JB funk the way JB conceived it, or threw it out there, or whatever. Highlights include the on-the-one coughs of "Smokin' and Drinkin'" and the big-band "Honky Tonk," but never mind that--this stuff is prime, so the groove's the thing. A−