★★★★★
The Temptations, The Jackson 5, New Edition, Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder and Kurtis Blow all had careers that intersected at some point with Kool & the Gang. But unlike those acts, in the 50 year career of Kool & the Gang, but the band had not released a holiday album. That's pretty amazing considering that Kool & the Gang had two different bites of the crossover fame apple: first as a straight up funk band that hit big with jams such as "Hollywood Swinging," and then as a R&B and pop outfit...
- www.soultracks.com
2013-12-07
★★★★★
had been together for over a decade before they enjoyed their first UK hit single in October 1979 with Ladies' Night. Even though there was just one addition to their line-up (vocalist James "JT" Taylor), the smooth grooving disco-friendly band that became a fixture in the charts for the next decade seemed to have little to do with the Afrocentric jazz-influenced funkers that had been US R&B; stars throughout the 70s...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-04-23
★★★★★
Named after bassist Robert "Kool" Bell, who founded the band with sax-blowing brother Ronald and friends from the Jersey City projects, Kool & The Gang have been going for over 40 years but can still announce a December tour of UK arenas to rabid response. This is mainly down to the glittering string of hits they enjoyed between 1979-86; irresistible, booty-shaking party chants that were massive at glitzier discos and office parties...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2010-12-21
★★★★★
After selling 100 million units over 40 (yes, 40!) years together, bandleader Robert "Kool" Bell called on a new generation of singers to urbanize classic hits like Too Hot (with Lisa Stansfield) and Ladies Night (Sean Paul and Spanner Banner). Result? A near complete disaster that even Blu Cantrell and Angie Stone can't salvage. But Jamiroquai's Jay Kay on the great Hollywood Swingin' and Jimmy Cliff and dancehall don Bounty Killer on (Ooh La La La) Let's Go Dancin' rock the house...
- www.hour.ca
2010-11-02
★★★★★
Blue-colored vinyl reissue, originally released in 1972. "Kool & the Gang's fourth album -- but only their second studio record -- was just as strong and joyous as its live predecessors, though it featured a few more vocals and emphasized strong musicianship over hard grooves. (Of course, the band always did pretty well at both...
- www.forcedexposure.com
2010-09-10
★★★★★
Red-colored vinyl reissue, originally released in 1973. The band's breakthrough album, featuring three massively successful hits: "Jungle Boogie." "Funky Stuff" and "Hollywood Swinging.
- www.forcedexposure.com
2010-09-10
★★★★★
Before the addition of unctuous vocalist James "JT" Taylor turned them into the soul gloop purveyors of Ladies Night and Celebrate!, Robert "Kool" Bell's Noo Joisey-schooled ensemble were tough-edged jazzers who couldn't sing for toffee but could funk for the Northern Hemisphere, a fact only underlined by W&P;'s keynote tune, the baldly-titled Funky Stuff...
- www.mojo4music.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
funk-kitsch godfathers ("Hollywood Swinging," "Jungle Boogie")
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
If in 1973 I'd been told that thirteen years hence Casey Kasem would name a then ghettoized funk group as the top singles act of the '80s, my heart would have swelled until my head interjected that the top singles act of the '70s was the Osmond family. In this I would have been wise, and if I'd then been told that the secret of Kool's success would be a bland black singer named James Taylor, I would have observed that he couldn't possibly be worse than our white one...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
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