Honey / Contradiction

Not one but two awesome 70's funk albums. Without doubt one of the most underrated bands of their era the Ohio's Players are great on these two albums. The Honey LP is still one of my all time favorites records with 4 US top ten hits Honey the title track along with Fopp, Sweet Sticky Thing and Love Rollercoaster later covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Then Contradiction has the bands only UK hit Who'd She Coo?Just fantastic. If you like funk / R&B this is a must for your collection.

Can do no wrong

The Ohio Players took the funk blueprint offered by Sly, and mixed in elements from Rock and their roots as a Soul vocal band to produce a series of albums each notorious for their cover, which featured sado-masochistic themes.Once they had hit the top of the charts with "Funky Worm" they signed with Mercury, and the band became an almost permanent feature of both R&B and pop charts in the mid 70's. Starting with "Skin Tight" and "Fire", their Mercury career continued with these 2 albums."Honey" was probably their best album, featuring the Funk Ballad as it's dominant theme. "Sweet Sticky Thing" is a wonderful laid back groove,while "Let's Love" and the title track also showcase the bands excellent harmonies. As for the uptempo tracks, "Fopp" is snarling Funk/Rock, and "Love Rollercoaster" will be familiar to many.It is true to say that the Players were beginning to lose their mass appeal by the time "Contradiction" was released - Disco was on the rise and Funk was definitely not part of the Disco agenda, except in it's most watered down form. "Who'd She Coo" is the best known track here, another hit song, and "Far East Mississippi" shows the band also had a social conscience, but in general this is fairly standard stuff, most of which had been done before in the Players repertoire.The Ohio Players were one of Soul/R&B's most succesful acts in the 70's, and their sound influenced many, including Cameo and The Commodores early work - check out Lionel Ritchie trying to sound like "Sugarfoot" Bonner for example. If you are at all interested in the Genre, then you should have this 2 for 1 release in your collection