Consumer Guide Album

Little Feat: Time Loves a Hero [Warner Bros., 1977]
Okay, so they're not a rock band or even a boogie band anymore--they're a funk band, praising the gods of rhythm for their black bassist and conga player. But neither Ken Gradney nor Sam Clayton could make the grade in P-Funk or the Crusaders or the Meters, and that's not even mentioning Bill Payne's synthesizers, which recall bad Rufus. And they still go through the motions of writing songs, the wordy kind that get in the way of the beat. In the end, though, that's what saves this--"Old Folks Boogie" beats anything on the last two albums, "Time Loves a Hero" tries, and "Rocket in My Pocket" is a Lowell George readymade like you didn't think he had in him anymore. B