★★★★★
Why Can't We Be Friends? is War's fifth and greatest studio album. Playing in LA since the early 60s, the band - then called Nightshift - was spotted by ex-Animals singer Eric Burdon at the decade's end and they became his backing band. Named War as a protest against Vietnam, the seven-piece group backed Burdon for two albums and kept a fiercely political agenda. Theirs was no po-faced preaching, however...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2010-08-22
★★★★★
War defined the '70s southern Californian musical landscape as vividly as Dr Dre would two decades later. "Discovered" and renamed by Eric Burdon while working as instrumental outfit Nightshift, they blossomed into funk-rock purveyors par excellence. The Burdon-featuring bliss-out "Spill The Wine", the urban terror of "Slippin' Into The Darkness" the Latino groove of "Low Rider" and laid-back harmony pop of "Why Can't We Be Friends?" capture their ferocious chops and wide cultural embrace...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2010-06-19
★★★★★
I've always been ambivalent about live albums, the double-live especially. I'm not a big fan of extended vamping (unless it's done creatively ? see Aceyalone's "Makebalillia Live" off "Grand Imperial"), and I usually find myself wanting the live performances to sound more like the studio versions. Of course, that makes a live recording all but pointless, since if you wanted to hear a perfect studio rendition you'd just listen to the album, right...
- rapreviews.com
2009-07-21
★★★★★
The first side of the most unambitious album they've ever made works beautifully as what it is--P-Funk on thorazine, with the phrasemaking acuity of previous War records reduced to one title, "Sweet Fighting Lady." Side two winds down from a pretty good hit single into fourteen minutes of carrying unambitiousness way too far.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
I thought they might conceivably cut it live, but even in the studio they stretch their tunes like Sherman tanks at a taffy pull. Only "Ballero," which is not a bolero, and "Lonely Feelin'," which is not a slow one, are worth their weight in plastic.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
One-two-three green light. Resume normal speed. A literal change of pace. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift accomplishment of their appointed rounds. Get it?
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
I like the way "Low Rider" does its bit for fuel economy, but the rest of the good stuff disappoints: the title hit is greater on the radio, "Heartbeat" is greater by the Wild Magnolias, and the salsa section of "Leroy's Lament" gets lost on a record that's a laid-back revision of their basic shtick. They're better off heavy.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
According to all my own theories, I should love this big Afro-roots band with the number one album, but it's hard. Jazz pretensions are one problem--"City, Country, City" has a firm bottom, but it's thirteen minutes long, and up top is mush. And if "That's What Love Will Do" was Vanilla Fudge, "Four Cornered Room" makes me think they're trying to start their own genre--blackstrap-rock, they could call it.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
I actually found myself paying attention to the dialogue on this soundtrack, a first, though I didn't ask for seconds. It's pretty coherent musically, too. But the level of the writing is suggested by the title of the best track, "This Funky Music Makes You Feel Good." And the dialogue hardly makes up for that.
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10