Consumer Guide Album

Grand Funk: Grand Funk Hits [Capitol, 1976]
This strictly post-Terry Knight compilation confirms my belief that they did most of their worthwhile recording with Todd Rundgren, although "Bad Time" and "Some Kind of Wonderful," from their first collaboration with Jimmy Ienner, are definitive plusses. The strategy is clear in retrospect--back to their junk-rock roots with ? and the Mysterians and maybe even Terry Knight & the Pack. Recycling riffs, upping the tempos, shuffling their limited vocal resources, and projecting the same populist sincerity that always made them more than a hype, they fuse their heavy beginnings with the hooks they were originally too mythic to bother with on this creditable testament. B+