CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
AMAZING RHYTHM ACES: "Too Stuffed to Jump" (ABC) :: This time the jazzy, boogie-based eclecticism and colloquial cleverness almost never transcend the cute and commercial, a major letdown after a debut album that may have fulfilled more promise than the group has.
CHRISTGAU CONSUMER GUIDE
AMAZING RHYTHM ACES: "Too Stuffed to Jump" (ABC) :: This time the jazzy, boogie-based eclecticism and colloquial cleverness almost never transcend the cute and commercial, a major letdown after a debut album that may have fulfilled more promise than the group has.
B Minus.
GEORGE BENSON: "Breezin' " (Warner Bros.) :: Just in case you're beguiled by his Stevie Wonder imitation (I prefer Carl Carlton's, Chaka Khan's, even Buddy Miles') on "Masquerade" (I prefer Helen Reddy's, Aretha Franklin's, even Leon Russell's) be hereby informed that Benson is not primarily a singer, but rather a jazz guitarist of the tasty variety. And that most of what he Spices up here is mush.
C.
RANDALL BRAMBLETT: "Light off the'Night" (Polydor):: Bramblett is a genuinely philosophical songwriter, an A student at a first-rate modernist seminary who hasn't lost his taste for the cracker barrel. His pessimism is gentle and good-humored, just like his soulful, pleasantly aimless music. Anybody who can follow a credible song about Karl Jung with another called "The Joke of the Coastal Plain" (that's us., fellow humans) is somebody you'll feel like listening to now and again.
BPlus