Sly & The Family Stone
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A Whole New Thing ***
Dance to the Music ***1/2
Life ****
Stand! *****
There’s a Riot Goin’ On ****1/2
Fresh ***1/2
Small Talk ***
For years, Sly Stone fans have wondered which might come first: the return of the man himself or the long-overdue modernization of his Family Stone catalog. Perhaps not coincidentally, the two have occurred simultaneously, but while Sly’s stage comeback will likely go down as little more than a curious novelty, the reissuing of his group’s first seven albums amounts to something far more historic, rightfully bringing Sly & The Family Stone’s catalog in line with such Sony/Legacy peers as Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, The Byrds and Santana.
Anyone not already intimately acquainted with the seminal sound of the urban, late ’60s/early ’70s soul-meets-psychedelia ensemble ought to run out this minute and snag the snazzy, surprisingly limited (to fewer than 20,000 apiece), digipack editions of A Whole New Thing, Dance to the Music, Life, Stand!, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Fresh and Small Talk. If you need to choose, start with the middle trio—1968’s wah-wah funky Life, 1969’s classics-loaded Stand! (“I Want to Take You Higher,” “Sing a Simple Song,” “Everyday People,” “You Can Make It If You Try”) and 1971’s darkly politicized Riot—though the other four also have their shares of must-have moments.
Whether longtime fans should plunk down 80-plus bucks for new versions of albums they may already have shelled out for on vinyl, cassette and/or CD (8-track, anyone?) is a trickier question to answer. Diehards will instinctively dive in for sound quality that’s noticeably improved (particularly the removal of some hiss and a refinement of the music’s lower register), restored artwork, augmented liner notes and four to six rare or unreleased bonus tracks per disc, but even they will lament the project’s strange non-inclusion of 1969 single-only essentials “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” “Everybody Is a Star” and “Hot Fun in the Summertime” (an apparent label device to prevent the total obsolescence of umpteen best-of collections).
As for passionate, but slightly less obsessive, Sly enthusiasts, the advice here is to trade in or pass down your originals and move on to the new digs. Because if you care enough to own non-digital archival releases these days, you automatically qualify as a serious listener, and it’s tough to think of many groups more worthy of serious attention than the groundbreaking—and still remarkably relevant—Sly & The Family Stone.